President Barack Obama is planning to transfer 17 or 18 of the remaining Guantanamo Bay prison detainees before he leaves office, according to The New York Times.
Italy, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates are set to take the detainees, The Times reports.
Obama's proposal would leave 41 or 42 detainees at the Cuba prison. Ten of those have been charged or convicted in military commissions and 27 have not been charged, but are considered too dangerous to release, according to The Times.
Throughout his time in office, Obama has attempted to close Guantanamo over the objections of Republicans, according to The Hill.
Elisa Massimino, president of Human Rights First, told the Times that releasing the detainees if they have not been charged is important.
"In terms of gradations of immorality, holding people for years who we have no national security interest in detaining is unconscionable. This is not just about a campaign promise," Massimino said.
Former President George W. Bush's administration placed around 780 men in Guantanamo after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. Obama has transferred a large amount of the detainees when he took office, the prison contained 242 detainees, The Times reports.
Most of the detainees who would be transferred are from Yemen. The administrations of both George W. Bush and Obama had been hesitant to send detainees back there due to the country's lack of stability.
The Obama administration gave up on waiting and began sending Yemenis back in 2014, according to a Times report in November 2014.
President-elect Donald Trump has said he would keep the prison open and add more prisoners to it. "We're going to load it up with some bad dudes," Trump said in April.
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