In 2016, Omar Khalifa Mohammed Abu Bakr was released to Senegal after spending 14 years in Guantanamo Bay without ever being charged with a crime.  Khalifa, who has significant limitations -- his right leg is amputated below the knee, his other leg is in terrible shape, and he is blind in his left eye -- was, according to the Intercept, informed last week that he would be deported from Senegal on April 3rd, despite the initial agreement between the U.S. government and Senegal that he would be allowed to remain there permanently and rebuild his life.  The determination to send Khalifa to Senegal and not his home country of Libya was made on the basis that his return to his country of origin would put his life at risk because of his tribal status and the stigma of having been detained in Guantanamo.  

Khalifa, who recently met with Libyan government officials hoping to gain reassurance that he would be safe upon return to Libya was told that they “couldn’t guarantee their own safety in Libya, let alone his.”  

Deportation to Libya and an impending death would be yet another stage in the cruelty that Khalifa has experienced at the hands of the U.S. government, and signifies how little it cares for prisoners who have managed to be liberated from Guantanamo’s walls.  It also demonstrates how little the U.S. government cares when it comes to redress and rehabilitation of former prisoners who, instead of receiving help and support to rebuild their lives, have to instead face the possibility of subsequent detention and even death.  

Given the awareness of both U.S. AND Libyan officials that he faces almost certain death if forced to return to Libya, it is imperative that the U.S. block his transfer to Libya.  The U.S. has the obligation to ensure that former prisoners are resettled without fear of additional retribution.  

Khalifa told the intercept that, “If the U.S. government told me two years ago that I would remain in Senegal temporarily, only to be sent to Libya after two years, regardless of the situation in Libya, I would have refused resettlement in Senegal. I would have even chosen to remain at Guantánamo over torture and death in a dungeon in Libya.”  The U.S. cannot and should not let Khalifa die on their watch: though the crimes of Guantanamo Bay, including the total and utter dehumanization of Muslim prisoners, can never be fully rectified, the U.S. government should do right by the prisoners who have been released.  

As a coalition of human rights organizations, we urge the U.S. government to fulfill its obligation to Khalifa and reaffirm the arrangements once made with the Senegalese government to let him stay in the country indefinitely.  

In addition, the U.S. should provide support for his medical and social services and insist that he be provided valid official documents that enable him to function fully within Senegal and to travel wherever he desires both inside and outside Senegal.