Guantanamo at 21: Advocates renew calls for closing US prison

The prison at Guantanamo Bay housed inmates in the 'war on terror' after the 9/11 attacks, but critics say it has come to symbolise US human rights abuses [Mandel Ngan/Pool via Reuters]

Since the chaotic withdrawal of United States forces from Afghanistan in 2021, President Joe Biden and his top aides have repeatedly expressed a sense of achievement that Washington is not at war for the first time in decades.

But not far from US shores, nestled in a Cuban harbour, the Guantanamo Bay detention facility is still operating as a remnant of the so-called “war on terror” that started after the 9/11 attacks in 2001.