Facing the Unknown, Guantanamo Detainee Chooses Captivity Over Release

http://news.yahoo.com/facing-unknown-guantanamo-detainee-chooses-captivity-over-release-001948796.html

As the last of 17 detainees approved for transfer from Guantanamo this month were prepared for release from the notorious prison on Monday, one man made a surprising choice. Mohammed Ali Abdullah Bwazir, a 35- or 36-year-old Yemeni man who had been detained for 14 years, refused to leave. Bwazir was to be relocated to an undisclosed country in which he had no family or friends, and he was frightened, The New York Times reported.

Bwazir’s unusual decision to choose detention over freedom highlights a difficulty faced by many of the men who have been slowly released from Guantanamo. Pardiss Kebriaei, a senior staff attorney for the Center for Constitutional Rights who represents multiple current and former detainees, told TakePart she has seen her clients struggle to acclimate to life after release.

“We’re elated when transfers happen, but there’s been no accountability for what they’ve lost and what they’ve been through,” Kebriaei said. “They land in countries they often have no familiarity with, no support system in.... There’s no real plan in place. They’re just sort of expected to rebuild.”

Having declined the resettlement after being approved for release by Guantanamo’s equivalent of a parole board, Bwazir must now wait until another country agrees to accept him—if he receives a future offer.