Guantanamo Bay is known for its U.S. military prison containing so-called “terrorists” but currently it is also housing Cubans who are in a legal limbo that keeps them out of the U.S. mainland and outside of Cuba while being technically within its geography.

Since July 29 the Cuban migrants have been on a liquid only hunger strike in protest against the U.S.’s decision to keep them off the U.S. mainland. According to what is commonly known as the U.S’s wet-foot-dry-foot policy, Cubans who make it to U.S. soil are generally allowed to stay, while those caught at sea are sent home.

But because these 22 Cubans, detained at sea, demonstrated that they may face persecution at within Castro’s Cuba often spend long stretches at Guantanamo, while U.S. authorities seek a third country to accept them. It is key to compare this treatment to the treatment that other immigrants held by the U.S. in detention centers. The Cuban detainees are allowed to move freely on the base and have no contact with the prisoners held there on suspicion of terrorism. They have been able to email and make phone calls to Cuban exile organizations in Miami who worry publicly about the health of the hunger strikers.

Via / CNN