Thursday, June 11, 2009

Bermuda 4, Palau 13

The Uighur transfer to Palau continues to develop. According to the AP this morning, four have already been resettled in Bermuda.

As for the other 13, they are headed to Palau. According to Palau's president, "Toribiong said the Uighur detainees from China's arid west would start their new lives in a halfway house to see how they acclimatize to his tropical archipelago west of the Philippines."

Does he realize that they haven't been in China in quite some time and they they've acclimatized to tropical Cuba pretty well?

This is the part where it all gets murky: "How long the men stay depends on whether they can find a better place to go, Toribiong said.

'"So we'll accept them and the details of the arrangements will be worked out, and they will be here until we can find out where they should be permanently located,' he said."

Based on this statement, they could stay in Palau for two days or two years or two decades. Whatever they want to do. If they decide to go back to Afghanistan, there's nothing stopping them.

Update: Bermuda issues a statement, part of which says:

"The United States Government will bear the cost surrounding this relocation and the Government of Bermuda will facilitate documentation, residence and employment."

1 comment:

yukio ngaby said...

So what exactly is the US paying Palau $200 million for? So that "they will be here until we can find out where they should be permanently located..." $200 million for that?

Govt. efficiency in action I suppose.