Biden resettles 11 more Guantánamo detainees

Human rights activists protest Guantanamo Bay prison in December 2024

(Image credit: Celal Gunes / Anadolu via Getty Images)

published 7 January 2025

What happened

The Pentagon said Monday that 11 Yemeni detainees held for more than two decades at Guantánamo Bay without charges have been transferred to Oman. With four more detainees repatriated last month — two Malaysians, a Tunisian and a Kenyan — the secretive U.S. prison camp in Cuba now holds 15 prisoners, the fewest since 2002.

Monday's resettlement is "part of President Joe Biden's fervent effort during his final weeks in office to reduce the number of those held in Guantánamo," The Washington Post said. There were 40 detainees when Biden took office and "resurrected an Obama administration effort to close the prison" that had been halted during Donald Trump's first term, The New York Times said. At its peak, "Guantanamo held about 800 detainees," The Associated Press said.

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The Pentagon said three other Guantánamo prisoners are eligible for transfer, three are eligible for review, two were convicted by military tribunals and the remaining seven are "involved in the military commissions process." Monday's resettlement, the Times said, came "days before "Guantánamo's most notorious prisoner, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, was scheduled to plead guilty to plotting the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks," in a deal that rules out the death penalty.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.