In a single largest transfer of Guantanamo detainees, 15 inmates from the Guantanamo prison were transferred to the United Arab Emirates during President Barack Obama’s administration.
The transfer of the 12 Yemeni and three Afghan citizens brings the total number of detainees down to 61 at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Most have been held without charge or trial for more than a decade, drawing international condemnation.
Obama, who had hoped to close the prison during his first year in office, rolled out his plan in February 2016 aimed at shutting the facility. But he faces opposition from many Republican lawmakers as well as some fellow Democrats.
While Obama’s plan for shuttering the facility calls for bringing the several dozen remaining prisoners to maximum-security prisons in the United States, U.S. law bars such transfers to the mainland. Obama, though, has not ruled out doing so by executive action.