Cuban President Miguel Dias-Canel yesterday Wednesday called the plan announced earlier by his US counterpart Donald Trump to drive 30.000 undocumented immigrants to the U.S. Armed Forces’ Wadhanamo Bay prison, which is generally used to detain those accused of terrorism.

“In an act of barbarism, the new US government announces the imprisonment at the naval base in Guantanamo, located on Cuban territory occupied illegally, of thousands of immigrants it forcibly deported,” the Cuban president said via X.

He also noted that irregular migrants would be incarcerated alongside “prisons known for torture and illegal detention” of suspected terrorists.

Earlier yesterday, Donald Trump said he would ask that the military prison at Guantanamo Bay be prepared to receive up to 30,000 undocumented immigrants.

“I will sign an (executive) order today calling for the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security to prepare a center for 30,000 immigrants at Guantanamo Bay,” the Republican told the White House, adding that these are “criminals” who have entered the country illegally.

“The U.S. government’s decision to imprison migrants at the naval base in Guantanamo Bay, the enclave where it created torture and detention centers indefinitely, shows its contempt for the human condition and for international law,” Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez commented via X.

The Guantanamo Bay prison was opened in 2002, inside a US military base located on the island of Cuba, as part of the “global war on terror” declared by the US president at the time, George W. Bush, after the attacks of September 11, 2001.

Hundreds of detainees, including some al-Qaeda members, were transferred to it, a fact that provoked strong reactions in the US and worldwide because of the conditions of detention and the use of torture.

Democratic former presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama both vowed to shut it down but never succeeded during their terms.

In September, the New York Times obtained government documents that revealed that the Guantanamo Bay military base has been used for decades by the US also to detain some illegal immigrants intercepted at sea.

The naval base in the Gulf of Guantanamo Bay, in southeastern Cuba, covers 117 square kilometers, territory Washington has occupied since 1903. Havana has been demanding that the US give up this territory and surrender it to it, to no avail.