Guantanamo Bay detention camp facts for kids
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 Location in Cuba
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| Location | Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba |
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| Coordinates | 19°54′03″N 75°05′59″W / 19.90083°N 75.09972°W |
| Status | Operational |
| Population | 30 (as of July 2024) |
| Opened | January 11, 2002 |
| Managed by | United States Navy |
The Guantanamo Bay detention camp is a United States military prison within Naval Station Guantanamo Bay (NSGB), also called GTMO (pronounced Gitmo /ˈɡɪtmoʊ/ GIT-moh) on the coast of Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. It was established in January 2002 by U.S. President George W. Bush to hold terrorism suspects and "illegal enemy combatants" during the Global War on Terrorism following the attacks of September 11, 2001. As of August 2024, at least 780 persons from 48 countries have been detained at the camp since its creation, of whom 740 had been transferred elsewhere.
Shortly after the September 11 attacks, the U.S. declared a war on terror and led a multinational military operation against Taliban-ruled Afghanistan to dismantle Al-Qaeda and capture its leader, Osama bin Laden. During the invasion, on November 13, 2001, President Bush issued a military order allowing for the indefinite detention of foreign nationals without charge and preventing them from legally challenging their detention. The following month, the U.S. Department of Justice claimed that habeas corpus - a legal recourse against unlawful detention—did not apply to Guantanamo Bay because it was outside U.S. territory. Subsequently, in January 2002, a temporary detention facility dubbed "Camp X-Ray" was created to house suspected Al-Qaeda members and Taliban fighters primarily captured in Afghanistan.
By May 2003, the Guantanamo Bay detention camp had grown into a larger and more permanent facility that housed over 680 detainees, the vast majority without formal charges. The Bush Administration maintained that it was not obliged to grant prisoners basic protections under the U.S. Constitution or the Geneva Conventions, since the former did not extend to foreign soil and the latter did not apply to "unlawful enemy combatants". Various humanitarian and legal advocacy groups claimed that these policies were unconstitutional and violated international human rights law; several landmark U.S. Supreme Court decisions found that detainees had rights to due process and habeas corpus but were still subject to military tribunals, which remain controversial for allegedly lacking impartiality, independence, and judicial efficiency.
Amid multiple legal and political challenges, as well as consistent widespread criticism and condemnation both domestically and internationally, the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay has been subject to repeated calls and efforts for closure. In January 2018, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to keep the detention camp open indefinitely, and only one prisoner was repatriated by his administration. Since taking office in 2021, President Joe Biden has vowed to close the camp before his term ends, although his administration has continued with multimillion-dollar expansions to military commissions and other Guantanamo Bay facilities.
