For those who got married and had children in the last ten years, could you imagine being deprived of seeing your child and your spouse? Let me put this into perspective again. Could you imagine not knowing where your child was, that same child you promised you would look after and protect for the rest of your life?

For many of us, the last ten years have been a blur. Since 2001, we have witnessed economies melting, the Arab world uprising against their leaders, a whole nation almost perishing because of a tsunami in 2004 and we have been ushered into the digital age in the last ten years, where books no longer need pages. The list would be endless and for many of us, this last decade has been a personal journey and each person has a different tale to tell. Time ultimately changes us all but for the 171 men still in GTMO, their friends and families, time has stood still. It has not been a healer for them or their close ones nor has it changed the nature of their confinement.

The story has been told on repeat since 2001. When the towers fell on September 11^th 2001, although an ethnocentric assertion, the world really and truly changed forever. The West was plagued with fears of another disastrous attack and so security practices began to increase. As residents of the Western world, we had to tweak our vocabulary so that the ‘B’ word was never uttered in public spaces and men had to refine their beards to avoid looking like a potential jihadist. Many Muslims would agree that to normalise their ‘new-found’ stereotype, they may joke about looking and acting like an extremist but in reality, this stereotype has been hard to shake off. Across the world in Afghanistan just after 9/11, the irony laden ‘Operation Enduring Freedom’ was taking place and rounding up those believed to be responsible for the attacks, including a 13 year old boy and a man who claimed he was 102 years old. Men were sold for a bounty, often for more than they had in their bank accounts (assuming that they even had one), and geographic borders were reinforced once again in the name of defending freedom. The only way out for many was either through Bagram, Afghanistan or Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and not always alive.

Dehumanisation, drugging and depression were common features in Guantanamo. Those detained had virtually no contact with their families and hundreds of men had left their pregnant wives. In many instances wives believed their husbands were dead and mothers mourned the losses of sons they believed they would never see again. On the rare occasion when detainees would receive letters, they were heavily redacted even if a child had written it. This was done again in the name of security as children in the post-9/11 world were even a threat. Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen, was a juvenile when he arrived to Guantanamo and not only was he denied the rights of a prisoner, but he was denied the rights of a child. What we experience during our adolescence and young adult life often shapes our identity and yet Omar has spent his in interrogation rooms shackled for hours or in the prison’s hospital, being forcibly fed. Doing this and more to a child is far from easy but the dehumanisation process in GTMO, as touched on above, made the acts of cruelty just a little bit more tolerable and even understandable perhaps. Referring to the detainees by numbers for example rather than their actual names stripped them of their humanity and allowed the guards to view them as the enemy. At a press conference today, Clive Stafford Smith, a lawyer for many of the detainees, claimed that Shaker Aamer is so used to being called by his number that he is taken aback when Clive refers to him by his name. He has been dehumanised heavily in Guantanamo that he fears one day, if released, will he respond to his own children (the youngest he has not met) calling him ‘Dad’? These are not normal fears for any individual but this can only be expected when, for almost a decade, you are merely a number who allegedly worked against the system, caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Shaker’s continued detention exemplifies everything that is wrong with GTMO which was created by Bush and maintained by Obama. Once known as ‘the professor’ because of his great influence in GTMO, Shaker’s condition has severely deteriorated. Despite their complicity in torture and rendition during the War on Terror, the UK called for the release of the British detainees and yet Shaker still remains in isolation despite his clearance in 2007.

‘2011 was the year of freedom for the Middle East. Our hope is that 2012 is the year of freedom for Guantanamo detainees’. These were the closing words of Sami El Hajj, former GTMO detainee, at today’s press conference. Ten years has gone by and what the detainees, their family and friends have been through is unimaginable but we are all guilty of allowing their stories and pleas go unheard. The anniversary may last for a day but let it act as a reminder that one of the biggest and bleakest human-rights violations in modern history continues to exist.