Palau’s president prepares for Uighurs, protects sharks

The Obama administration notified congress last week that six Uighur detainees at Guantanamo Bay have agreed to be resettled in the Pacific nation of Palau and will be transferred within the next few months. Six of these detainees have agreed to the transfer. I ask Palauan President Johnson Toribiong for the latest on his country’s ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.

The Obama administration notified congress last week that six Uighur detainees at Guantanamo Bay have agreed to be resettled in the Pacific nation of Palau and will be transferred within the next few months. Six of these detainees have agreed to the transfer. I ask Palauan President Johnson Toribiong for the latest on his country's preperations for taking in the Uighurs:

The Obama administration notified congress last week that six Uighur detainees at Guantanamo Bay have agreed to be resettled in the Pacific nation of Palau and will be transferred within the next few months. Six of these detainees have agreed to the transfer. I ask Palauan President Johnson Toribiong for the latest on his country’s preperations for taking in the Uighurs:

I am preparing a place for them to stay, arranging for our community college to set up education programs for them. They’ll get a crash course in the English language and our culture and our environment. We will receive them as free human beings.

Toribong also made history today by announcing that Palau was creating the world’s first shark sanctuary and would ban the fishing of sharks throughout Palauan waters, an area roughly the size of France.

"Healthy shark popluations are critical to both the health of our oceans and the health of Palau’s economy," he said. "The rampant, illegal and widescale removal of sharks from Palau’s water deprives our ecosystem of its apex predators and our tourism of one of its main attractions."  

Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

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