The hopes of human rights organizations in the final closure of Guantánamo appear to be fading as the detainees, who include prisoners accused of participating in the September 11 attacks on the United States, are preparing to keep it open for at least another 25 years.

"We have to make sure our facilities can last for 25 years," said Admiral John Ring, commander of the US military operations force that runs the controversial detention center.

"They told us we would stay here for 25 years or more," Ring said during a regular US Army reporter's visit to the US enclave in southeast Cuba to show how his prisoners are being treated humanely.

President Trump decided at the end of January to keep the prison open, contradicting repeated attempts by his predecessor, Barack Obama, who eventually found no way to close a prison condemned by human rights defenders, because detainees are not tried in civilian courts but by military commissions.

The US president signed a decree instructing the Pentagon to "keep all detention facilities at Guantanamo open."

"The Pentagon sent us a memo saying: 'Prepare for the prison to remain open for 25 years or more,'" Ring told AFP.

Twenty-six of the remaining detainees are now classified as being in the highest risk category (Reuters)

Categories of detainees
The prison, which opened in 2002 to receive the first jihadists in the context of US military intervention in Afghanistan after the September 11 attacks, includes a number of prisoners with 780 prisoners.

Currently there are only forty prisoners between the ages of 37 and 71, after some have been released or transferred to other countries over the past years.

Twenty-six of the detainees are classified as "extremely dangerous," while Ali Hamza Ahmed al-Bahlul, one of Osama bin Laden's aides, was sentenced to life imprisonment. Another detainee is awaiting a verdict next summer.

Of the remaining 12 detainees, the military commissions were considered five of them to be transferred to another country, while seven were being tried. In order to pay attention to these detainees who were being humiliated, the detention center had to adapt its medical facilities.

A total of 1,800 military personnel provide security for the operation of the prison, from guards to cooks to maritime surveillance patrols, with an annual budget of $ 78 million. Admiral Ring said he had an urban contractor to try to ease the lives of the military serving at Guantanamo for only nine months, without their families, who could not stay on the site.

Guantanamo has not received any detainees since 2008, but since his election campaign in 2016, Trump has not hidden his intention to send more "bad guys" captured in Syria and Iraq to jail, and his decree provides for the release of new detainees.

"We have not received anything yet," Ring said, adding "we have no indications" suggesting that other jihadists could be transferred to Guantanamo soon.

The hopes of the jurists to close the prison faded after Trump came to power (European)

The NBC channel said late last month that the Trump administration plans to send members of the Islamic state - including two British jihadists from a cell called the Beatles - to Guantanamo.

Admiral Ring said the detainee could, when necessary, receive another forty detainees, with the same infrastructure and the same crew.

He added that the center can receive up to 200 detainees without the need to expand, but in this case will need more staff.