3 more Guantanamo detainees come to Albania

TIRANA, Feb. 24 – Albania on Wednesday said it had received three more former Guantanamo detainees, who are not members of China’s ethnic Uighur Muslim minority.
An Interior Ministry statement said the decision was based on the “individual agreement between the United States and the Albanian government,” adding they will continue consultation on their treatment.
The three Guantanamo former detainees, a Tunisian, an Egyptian and a Libyan were brought to Albania Tuesday.
“This transfer comes as a result of the Albanian government’s concrete commitment to support President Obama’s administration in closing the Guantanamo center and the transfer of its detainees in friendly and safe countries,” said the statement.
Since 2006 Albania has taken eight former detainees from the U.S. prison in Cuba, including five Uighurs, who have been offered some assistance including jobs, mosques and help learning the local language, but they remain cut off from their families in China.
A Swedish immigration court initially granted asylum to one of the men, but the Swedish migration board is now appealing the decision to a higher court. He applied for asylum in Sweden because his sister lives there.
Tirana has said the tiny Balkan country could take no more Uighurs from Guantanamo for fear of prejudicing Albania’s relations with China.
Uighurs are from Xinjiang, an isolated region that borders Afghanistan, Pakistan and six Central Asian nations. They say they have been repressed by the Chinese government. China long has said that insurgents are leading an Islamic separatist movement in Xinjiang.