Red Cross concerned about health of detainees at Guantánamo Bay

As prisoners age, their physical and mental health needs are more and more difficult, said the head of a delegation in visit.

GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba - A senior official with the International Committee of the Red Cross issued a rare statement of alarm on Friday about deteriorating health conditions and inadequate preparations for aging prisoners at Guantánamo Bay.

The U.S. military needs to do a better job of providing care for prisoners who are "experiencing symptoms of aging accelerated, compounded by the cumulative effects of their experiences and years spent in detention,” Patrick Hamilton, the head of the Red Cross delegation for the United States and Canada, said in the statement.

In March, Mr. Hamilton and other delegates made a routine quarterly visit to the detention center, the organization's 146th since the war prison opened in January 2002. He stated that "the physical and mental health needs of prisoners are increasing and becoming increasingly difficult".

" Consideration should be given to adapting the infrastructure to the changing needs and disabilities of inmates, as well as the rules that govern their daily lives,” said Mr Hamilton, who last visited the prison in 2003, where 660 men and boys were held. . there. Today, 30 detainees remain.

Red Cross officials generally do not comment publicly on conditions in the detention center, preferring to keep them confidential their communications with the U.S. government.

Normally, quarterly visits include meetings with the commandant of the detention center, who is currently a brigadier general in the National Guard from Michigan. Members of the delegation, which usually includes a doctor, also meet with detainees, interview those soon to be released, and deliver messages from the family.

Mr. Hamilton said Guantánamo military officials were "offering temporary solutions" to prisoners' growing physical and mental health needs.

He urged the Biden administration and the Congress to, as a priority, "find adequate and lasting solutions to resolve these problems".

Lawyers for some of the prisoners, particularly those who have spent years in harsh and secretive C.I.A. custody before Guantánamo, said the detainees suffered from brain damage and disorders from beatings and sleep deprivation, a damaged gastrointestinal system from rectal abuse and possible problems with prolonged shackling and other confinements.

One ​​of the most weakened prisoners is Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, who is in his 60s and is the oldest inmate in the prison. He has had six spine and back surgeries at Guantánamo Bay since 2017 by Navy medical teams that were airlifted to the base.

His Lawyer Susan Hensler said Friday that Mr Hadi was recently diagnosed with "severe osteoporosis" which likely contributed to problems during his last operation in November. Doctors inserted metal into her back, but the device slipped and the screws came loose, she said. Navy doctors plan to bring a team to base this year for another surgery, using larger screws.

The Cross statement Rouge comes less than a month after a group of UN investigators went public with a complaint they made to the US on January 11 regarding health care at the prison, and for Mr. Hadi in particular. .

Mr. Hamilton said the United States needed to take a "more holistic approach" to inmate health care. “All detainees must have access to adequate health care that takes into account both deteriorating mental and physical conditions – whether at Guantánamo Bay Naval Base or elsewhere. This includes medical cases...