Eight years since the first transfers to Guantánamo Bay, Amnesty International Australia has again called for Australia to play its role in the closing of the detention facility.

While the USA has the prime responsibility to resolve the human rights scandal it created at Guantánamo, Amnesty International has highlighted the need for other countries, including Australia, to do what they can to assist. Other countries can facilitate the closure by offering humanitarian protection to detainees who are cleared for release but cannot be returned to their own countries for fear that they would suffer torture or persecution there.

Internationally, leading human rights organisations have urged more European states, including Germany, Finland, Sweden and Luxembourg, to do more to aid the transfer of roughly 50 such men who remain trapped after years of unlawful detention.

“Although several countries have already led the way, it is disappointing that only a few European governments have stepped forward to help those in need of protection,” said Sharon Critoph, Campaigner on the US at Amnesty International.

“Amongst those governments which have failed to assist are those previously most vocal in calling for Guantánamo to be closed.”

Reprieve, the Center for Constitutional Rights and former Guantánamo detainee Moazzam Begg of the organisation Cage Prisoners are today beginning a tour across Europe urging more states to offer the men a safe haven. The tour will be hosted by Amnesty International’s national sections.

These men remain detained for the sole reason that they have no safe place to go. They have been essentially abandoned at Guantánamo. The plight of these men poses one of the most significant obstacles to the closure of the detention centre.

A number of European states have already taken the commendable step of offering a safe haven to such detainees, in line with the stated aims of the EU-US joint agreement on the closure of Guantánamo. These include France, Ireland, Portugal, Hungary and Belgium. On this important anniversary, human rights groups are urging others to follow suit.

The men come from countries such as Libya, Tunisia, Syria, China and Russia, where they will be at serious risk of torture or other human rights violations if returned.

Guantánamo remains a stark symbol of injustice. Human rights groups have expressed concern that the detention facility will remain open past 22 January 2010, the date by which US President Barack Obama had pledged to close it. Unless more countries step forward now to help, some of the most vulnerable detainees remain at serious risk of forcible return to abuse.

''The last decade saw the erosion of the rule of law and international respect for human rights. Guantánamo stands for all that went wrong and it must now be closed’’ said Sophie Weller of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

‘‘The men who remain detained because they lack a safe haven continue, every day, to pay the human price for delay and inaction in achieving this aim.”

“Many European governments have condemned the ongoing detention of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay. Now they can do something about it,” said Clive Stafford Smith, Director of Reprieve. “Actions really do speak louder than words in this case; its time to turn the rhetoric into reality and get Guantánamo closed as soon as possible.”