Torture in Guantánamo Bay Prison
For more than two decades, Guantánamo Bay prison has stood as one of the world’s most infamous detention camps. Today, it has become a global symbol of torture, injustice and cruelty, embodying the severe human rights violations perpetrated in the name of the so-called ‘War on Terror’.
What is Guantánamo Bay Prison?
Guantánamo Bay prison is a detention centre established in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on the USA. The US opened the offshore detention facility in an attempt to evade the rule of law. In the name of the US’s ‘War on Terror’, people deemed by the US to be ‘enemy combatants’ were detained at the facility. Many were tortured and denied basic human rights and due process such as the to the right to a fair trial, the right to humane treatment in detention and the right to freedom from torture.
Since the first detainees arrived in 2002, Guantánamo Bay has imprisoned 780 men and boys from 48 countries. Many have been tortured. At least nine have died. Yet only 16 detainees have ever been convicted of a crime – just 2%.
Every detainee in Guantánamo has suffered a profound assault on their human rights and dignity and been subjected to degrading treatment.
Guantánamo Bay in 2025
Today, after 24 years of injustice, 15 men are still being held without charge at Guantánamo Bay. Among them are three men approved for release, including one who has been waiting now for over 15 long years. Another three are now considered ‘forever prisoners’, to be held indefinitely without being charged for any crime, but with no hope of trial.
In 2025, Guantánamo’s legacy of torture, suffering and dehumanisation lives on, as a place where horrific human rights violations were carried out. Until it is closed once and for all, its existence can be viewed as offering a symbolic green light for torture worldwide.
Background to Guantánamo Bay
2001 - After the 9/11 attacks, President Bush launches the “war on terror” and invades Afghanistan. The US begins plans to build an offshore detention facility in Cuba to house captured men suspected of terrorism. Because this prison is not on US soil, the Bush administration claim detainees have no rights or recourse to the US justice system.
2002 – The first detainees captured in Afghanistan arrive at Guantánamo Bay. Images of kneeling, hooded men in orange jumpsuits in mesh cages spark outrage on a global scale. The US employs the term 'unlawful enemy combatants’ to describe detainees as part of efforts to legitimise the denial of their rights. At the end of the year, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approves a range of ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’, a term used to justify and deny acts of torture.
2003 – 680 detainees imprisoned in Guantánamo.
2004 – After Rasaul v Bush, the Supreme Court issues a landmark decision that challenges the US’s detention policies at Guantánamo by ruling its detainees had the legal right to challenge their imprisonment.
2009 – Barack Obama becomes President and immediately orders the closure of Guantánamo, but his plan is blocked. Instead, many detainees are released or transferred, substantially reducing the prison’s population.
2013 – At least 100 men in Guantánamo begin a hunger strike in protest of the horrific conditions they are forced to endure. To keep them alive, many are force-fed. The UN pronounces this a violation of the Convention Against Torture, and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment.
2018 – President Trump signs a legal order to keep Guantánamo open, reversing the policy of the Obama administration.
2021 – President Biden takes office and announces he will close the prison, which now houses 39 detainees, but he makes little progress.
2025 – In the last days of the Biden administration, 11 detainees are moved from Guantánamo Bay to Oman, leaving 15 people detained.
2025 – President Trump brings Guantánamo to the headlines once again by suggesting that immigrants be classified as ‘enemy combatants’ and be housed in Guantánamo, and signs an executive order to expand its Migrants Operations Centre.
What happened to prisoners in Guantánamo Bay?
Detainees held in Guantánamo Bay prison have reported horrifying conditions and experiences of torture, while being denied access to a trial. Numerous accounts and testimonies have been placed in the public domain:
Jamal al-Harith told of his experiences being “intentionally subjected to extremes of hot and cold”, and being kept “in a filthy cage for 24 hours per day with no proper sanitation,” where “very powerful spotlights made it hard to sleep properly.” Once a week, he was “permitted five minutes of recreation, but my hands remained chained.”
Former detainee Adnan Farhan Abd Al Latif described being repeatedly subjected to “stress positions, sleep deprivation [and] blaring music”.
Shaker Aamer, a UK resident who was detained in Guantánamo and released in 2015, wrote: “They start beating my leg. They start, you know, pinching me. They start sticking their fingers in my eyes. All the pressure points and all that. And I'm screaming, screaming and screaming.”
Mohammed Jawad, who was only a teenager when he was brought to Guantánamo, was subjected to a dehumanising sleep deprivation technique known as the “frequent flier” programme. He was forced to stay awake and move cells constantly. He reported being shackled and moved over 112 times between cells over 14 days, “with bright lights on continuously”, on average every 2 hours and 50 minutes.
During his hunger strikes at Guantánamo, Samir Naji al Hasan Moqbel said that despite being detained “for 11 years and three months”, he had ”never been charged with any crime” and “never received a trial.”
How has the UK been complicit in the abuses of Guantánamo Bay?
The UK government continues to be plagued by long-standing allegations of complicity in the mistreatment of Guantánamo’s detainees. These allegations have been documented across court cases and media reports, and include individuals’ accounts of detention abroad with the knowledge, or even involvement, of British intelligence. Some report that British agents were present during interrogations.
Allegations also cover cases where intelligence was shared by the UK despite knowing there was a risk of it leading to torture, and of involvement in the US-led rendition and secret detention programme. Many of those affected and captured were then transferred to Guantánamo Bay.
In July 2010, Prime Minister David Cameron launched the Detainee Inquiry purportedly to investigate these allegations, but due to delays in police investigations, it concluded its preparatory work in 2013 without conducting a full public inquiry.
The Inquiry was criticised for lack of transparency and authority and for failing to centre the voices of survivors in the investigation including by Freedom from Torture. As a step towards justice and accountability it failed to deliver.
What can we do?
Torture causes long-lasting mental and physical pain. People who have been held in Guantánamo report suffering from severe psychological distress, difficulty reintegrating, and chronic pain and other physical after-effects.
At Freedom from Torture, our aim is to help all survivors of torture, including some of those formerly detained at Guantánamo, so they can heal from trauma, re-establish relationships and trust, recover their confidence and their voice.
We help people recover from the trauma of torture by providing support with issues like complex post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety and other problems. We support survivors in processing their trauma through techniques like stabilisation and therapies, and manage their pain through services that include physiotherapy.
To offer these vital, life-changing services, we rely on donations from generous supporters like you. Please give now, and together with your support, we can make it possible to help torture survivors to rebuild their lives.
Image credit: Greg Mathieson/Mai / Getty Images