US Designation of Afghanistan for ‘Wrongful Detention’ is Hypocritical attempt to block release of Guantanamo prisoners

London — The United States’ decision to designate Afghanistan as a “State Sponsor of Wrongful Detention” is a stunning display of hypocrisy from a government that has operated the world’s most notorious system of arbitrary detention for over two decades and, domestically, remains the largest carceral state in human history.

For 24 years the United States has held hundreds of men at Guantánamo Bay without charge or trial. A total of 779 prisoners have passed through the prison, many held for years without charge, due process, torture or meaningful legal recourse. Fifteen men remain imprisoned there today, including an Afghan national, nearly a quarter century after the facility first opened. This does not include the tens of thousands of detainees who passed through the United States’ wider network of detention and torture sites in the War on Terror, including Kandahar, Bagram and Abu Ghraib.

Against this backdrop, Washington’s attempt to position itself as a global arbiter of “wrongful detention” is shameless. The United States has normalised and “perfected” indefinite detention, secret prisons and coercive interrogation across the War on Terror while continuing to refuse accountability for or even acknowledge those abuses.

The designation of Afghanistan is a political instrument designed to apply pressure on adversaries while ignoring the United States’ own record of detention without trial.

Such measures undermine the very diplomatic mechanisms that resolve detention cases. Prisoner exchanges and negotiated releases have historically been the most effective means of resolving these disputes. Escalating sanctions and political designations threaten to complicate those processes and obstruct ongoing efforts to secure the release of detainees - including Afghan prisoners whose cases remain in limbo.

The move also signals a broader trajectory in US foreign policy, where the expansion of designation regimes is used to isolate governments, destabilise organisations and entrench geopolitical confrontation.

Moazzam Begg, Outreach Director at CAGE International and former Guantanamo Detainee, said: 

“I wonder where the United States got the idea of ‘wrongful detention’. For 24 years it has held 779 prisoners in Guantánamo - and counting - without charge or trial. Fifteen remain there today, including an Afghan.

No one has practiced ‘wrongful detention’ more than the United States itself. Perhaps it should place itself on the list.

Conduct the prisoner exchanges.”