The United States Department of Justice said Monday that it has sent three detainees of the Guantanamo Bay prison to Slovakia, in an effort to help the Obama administration close it down.
The three detainees, whose identity were not released for security reasons at the request of the Slovakian government, were transferred to the Central European country Sunday, the department said.
Slovakia is the tenth country within the European Union that has agreed to take Guantanamo prisoners.
The rehabilitated prisoners will live in special camps under the control of the Interior Ministry. Following an 18-month process of acclimatization to Slovakia, including language instruction and a search for employment, the prisoners will be released. However, they will be under surveillance for an unspecified period.
Closing the Guantanamo Bay detainee camp within a year was one of the first decisions made by the Obama administration when it assumed power in January last year, but it later acknowledged that the deadline will likely be missed because of political and diplomatic hurdles.
Currently, about 200 prisoners are remaining at the US detention camp in Cuba, which was set up by former president George W. Bush to hold terror suspects from around the world.
Some of them await resettlement abroad while others could face charges in US military tribunals or in American courtrooms. So far, few countries have agreed to host the released inmates, who fear they will face torture if sent back to their homelands.
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April 17, 2026 15:29 ET The ongoing conflict in the Middle East continues to raise concerns for policymakers who worry about the impact of the supply shock and high energy prices on the real economy. Producer price data and various survey results on the housing market were the main news from the U.S. this week. In Europe, industrial production data for the euro area gained attention. GDP figures out of China and the policy move by the Singapore central bank were in focus in Asia.