The forever prisoners still shackled in Guantanamo 14 years after Obama said it would be shut

On his second day as US President, Barack Obama signed an order directing that the Guantanamo detention camp should shut within a year.

His decision was globally acclaimed since the military-run detention centre in Cuba had come to symbolise the shameful excesses of Washington’s so-called war on terror. Obama had decided that the 19 methods of torture used – including waterboarding, sexual harassment and sleep deprivation – were not moral, legal nor effective.

But more than 14 years on from Obama’s noble declaration, Guantanamo remains open – with 30 captives still confined in the planet’s most infamous prison camp.