Dozens of US House members call on Biden to press for immediate closure of Guantanamo Bay prison

Barack Obama signed an order to close detention camp in his first days as president, but shutting it down and transferring its inmates has proven extremely complicated

A group of House Democrats has publicly called on President Joe Biden to speed up his efforts to close down the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay and humanely transfer its detainees elsewhere as quickly as possible.

The letter’s top signatories include Adam Schiff, chair of the House Intelligence Committee, and Ilhan Omar, one of the members of the progressive “squad”.

The letter, co-signed by a total 75 members of Congress, gives “strong support” to the administration’s stated goal of shutting the prison, but also calls on the White House to act faster in the interests of everyone concerned – as well as the US’s international standing.

“We ask that as you take the steps necessary to finally close the prison,” it reads, “you act immediately to further reduce its population, ensure that the remaining detainees are treated humanely, and increase the transparency of military commission proceedings at the Guantanamo detention facility.”

In a tweet after the letter’s release, Ms Omar wrote: “The prison at Guantanamo is a moral stain on our country. It’s way past time we end this monument to cruelty and torture.”

The letter singles out 10 detainees whose cases have been cleared for release but are still in custody at the prison, and calls on the administration “to immediately re-establish the office of the Special Envoy for Guantanamo Prison Closure at the State Department or create an analogous position”.

The prospect of re-establishing that office after the Trump administration scrapped all efforts to close the base has been floated by the administration before, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying he was keen to make sure his department had a full-time officer dedicated to getting the camp shut down.

The letter to the president also calls on him to give detainees and their legal representatives access to their medical records, which are apparently being withheld or redacted because of sensitive information – raising the spectre that the records might contain evidence of abuse or torture while in detention.

The Biden administration transferred its first detainee out of Guantanamo this summer. Asked for comment by The Independent, a White House spokesperson said that “the Biden administration remains dedicated to a deliberate and thorough process focused on responsibly reducing the detainee population and ultimately closing of the Guantanamo facility”.

Closing the Guantanamo detention facility was a major part of Barack Obama’s agenda when he took office in 2009, and an order to shut it down was one of the first executive actions he signed after being sworn in. However, the legal implications of transferring its prisoners, whether to the US or elsewhere, proved difficult because of the legal circumstances of their apprehension, which has always presented the problem of what will happen if they are transferred to bona fide American soil.

Seven years later, with almost 150 prisoners transferred out of the camp, Mr Obama presented a new plan to close the facility, saying that “keeping this facility open is contrary to our values. It undermines our standing in the world.” Nonetheless, the camp still held dozens of detainees by the time Mr Obama left office. However, Donald Trump as president said he would not only keep the camp open but would add to its detainee population.