Guantanamo, April 19: Five Chinese Muslims being held at Guantanamo Bay have lost their latest bid for resettlement.
The five Uighurs have been held at the US naval base in Cuba for nearly nine years after being arrested in Afghanistan in 2002 and accused of belonging to a group being trained in terrorist tactics.
US officials have decided they pose no terrorism threat and should be released, but the dispute is now over where they are to be resettled.
The detainees have previously declined an offer to go to the tiny Pacific nation of Palau, saying they have no cultural ties there.
Now Congress has forbidden the transfer of any detainees to the US, where the Uighurs would like to go, at least in the short term.
North America Correspondent Jane Cowan
–Agencies