GREENFIELD — Human rights activists will march down Main Street and gather at the Greenfield Common on Saturday to call for the closure of Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. detention camp located in Cuba, as well as raise money to pay reparations to the people who have been held there over the past 23 years.

At noon, local members of the Witness Against Torture and No More Guantanamos advocacy groups will be sharing poetry written by Guantanamo prisoners and collecting donations for the Guantanamo Survivors Fund.

“It’s important for us Americans to understand we committed huge violations of human rights,” said Charlemont resident Sherrill Hogen, a member of Witness Against Torture and No More Guantanamos.

Nearly 800 men have passed through the facility since it opened on Jan. 11, 2002, to hold suspected terrorists and enemy combatants captured during the War on Terror. Only 15 prisoners remain after the Biden administration transferred 11 Yemeni detainees to Oman on Monday.

Of the remaining 15, three are eligible for transfer, three are eligible for a Periodic Review Board, seven are involved in the military commissions process, and two detainees have been convicted and sentenced by military commissions, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.

“We’re grateful they’re out but that doesn’t mean they’re free,” Hogen said of prisoners who were recently transferred. “Their lives have been interrupted and miserable, and they deserve to be free and cared for.”

Hogen said the phrase “enemy combatant” was created by the government as a way to unjustly hold prisoners of war without fair trials and ignore laws and procedures for incarcerations, and that many of the men there were held without any charges.

She added that reparations are owed to these men, who are isolated, tortured, then sent to countries where they do not know the language.

On Saturday, Hogen and other members of Witness Against Torture and No More Guantanamos will be marching through Greenfield to raise awareness of the torture prisoners faced while held at the detention camp, which she said makes return to normal life impossible. They will also be accepting donations for the Guantanamo Survivors Fund.

Since it was founded in April 2022, the Guantanamo Survivors Fund has raised more than $100,000 to cover rent, food and medical treatment for 40 former detainees, according to the organization’s website. For 2025, the fund’s board of directors has set a goal of raising $50,000 to issue 15 grants to survivors.

As of Thursday morning, the fund had reached 85% of its goal and raised $42,624.

“It’s a black mark on United States policy that Guantanamo Bay ever opened,” Hogen said. “It’s been open for 23 years and it never should have opened to begin with.”

Reach Madison Schofield at 413-920-4579 or mschofield@recorder.com.