Uploaded May 2011 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
To help fund this project, see: http://www.emphas.is/web/guest/discoverprojects?projectID=315
From Alfonso: The American prison in Guantanamo Bay today houses some 180 people accused of committing acts of terrorism. Since January 2002, more than one thousand detainees have passed through this detention centre on the island of Cuba. Almost half of them have subsequently been freed without being charged.
The prisoners are in a kind of legal limbo, lying outside the jurisdiction of US legislation and without any kind of international protection that would guarantee their status as prisoners of war. They are tried by Military Tribunals. Entry to the base is prohibited to all humanitarian organizations. Only the International Red Cross is allowed to visit Guantanamo Bay on a regular basis.
Around 130 Afghans have been detainees in Guantanamo and more than 350 have been detained in the main US bases on Afghan soil, in Bagram and Kandahar. In general, those who had been freed expressed during the interviews their sense of absolute frustration. They are still suspected by the Americans, but also by the Afghan government, which, having initially detained them as a preventative measure, has now released them. They have received no explanations or apologies.
The project started in 2008, at Afghanistan, where I acknowledged at firsthand the experiences of eight ex-prisoners of Guantanamo. Ahmad Nasim, one of those we interviewed, explained that it is dangerous for them to leave their home villages since the Taliban know who they are and suspect they may be acting as agents working on behalf of the foreign troops. For them, the danger is no longer just in Guantanamo, it is also now in their very homes. They are, in short, victims of the war that has swept their country for more than 30 years and which does not only hit those who are on the frontline.
The aim of this project is to learn more about these people and assemble an archive of Guantanamo prisoners in Afghanistan. Accompanying it, there will be a multimedia support with interviews and additional information. To complete the project I need your help to return to Afghanistan and finish the interviews. In addition to the travel costs, I need the support of a driver and fixer order to work safely in Afghanistan, which makes up almost 60% of the budget.
I believe the images and interviews of these men are important documents to add to the journalistic record of the war in Afghanistan.
To receive contributions this project must be completely funded by the 29th of July, 2011.
The first part of the work "Freed, Faces of Guantanamo" has been published in La Vanguardia Magazine in Spain, Spectrum (The SundayTimes), Amnesty International Magazine (Holland) and is going to be part of the book: "The Australian Photojournalist 2010".
To help fund this project, see: http://www.emphas.is/web/guest/discoverprojects?projectID=315
From Alfonso: The American prison in Guantanamo Bay today houses some 180 people accused of committing acts of terrorism. Since January 2002, more than one thousand detainees have passed through this detention centre on the island of Cuba. Almost half of them have subsequently been freed without being charged.
The prisoners are in a kind of legal limbo, lying outside the jurisdiction of US legislation and without any kind of international protection that would guarantee their status as prisoners of war. They are tried by Military Tribunals. Entry to the base is prohibited to all humanitarian organizations. Only the International Red Cross is allowed to visit Guantanamo Bay on a regular basis.
Around 130 Afghans have been detainees in Guantanamo and more than 350 have been detained in the main US bases on Afghan soil, in Bagram and Kandahar. In general, those who had been freed expressed during the interviews their sense of absolute frustration. They are still suspected by the Americans, but also by the Afghan government, which, having initially detained them as a preventative measure, has now released them. They have received no explanations or apologies.
The project started in 2008, at Afghanistan, where I acknowledged at firsthand the experiences of eight ex-prisoners of Guantanamo. Ahmad Nasim, one of those we interviewed, explained that it is dangerous for them to leave their home villages since the Taliban know who they are and suspect they may be acting as agents working on behalf of the foreign troops. For them, the danger is no longer just in Guantanamo, it is also now in their very homes. They are, in short, victims of the war that has swept their country for more than 30 years and which does not only hit those who are on the frontline.
The aim of this project is to learn more about these people and assemble an archive of Guantanamo prisoners in Afghanistan. Accompanying it, there will be a multimedia support with interviews and additional information. To complete the project I need your help to return to Afghanistan and finish the interviews. In addition to the travel costs, I need the support of a driver and fixer order to work safely in Afghanistan, which makes up almost 60% of the budget.
I believe the images and interviews of these men are important documents to add to the journalistic record of the war in Afghanistan.
To receive contributions this project must be completely funded by the 29th of July, 2011.
The first part of the work "Freed, Faces of Guantanamo" has been published in La Vanguardia Magazine in Spain, Spectrum (The SundayTimes), Amnesty International Magazine (Holland) and is going to be part of the book: "The Australian Photojournalist 2010".
