US officials, worried a flood of US-bound Cubans could follow the death of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, plan to build an immigrant reception center at a US base in Guantanamo, Cuba, the Pentagon announced.
The base now housing war-on-terror suspects will be readied for a wave of US-bound migrants, the Pentagon said in a statement.
The US Navy base was made famous by international human rights groups and foreign governments claiming prisoners in US custody have been abused, denied access to attorneys and held for years without being charged.
Islands Mechanical Contractors of Jacksonville, Florida won a 16.5 million-dollar contract to build wastewater treatment facilities, showers, latrines, laundry, utilities, office, fencing and warehouses by May 2008.
"It is being built as a preparatory measure because of the history of the region," said US military spokesman Jose Ruiz, while denying it was related to a specific country.
"We do not anticipate in the future any spike in migrant activity, illegal migration, to the United States, but because the region has had surges in illegal migration to the United States, this is a preparatory measure," he explained.
Some 380 inmates are still held at the prison, some for as long as five years, for suspected links to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, who ran the regime in Afghanistan that harbored them. Most were picked up on battlefields in Afghanistan.
Through naval exercises and government statements, the United States has already displayed concern over a possible massive influx of migrants from Cuba upon the death of Castro, 80. The communist leader of nearly five decades has been out of public sight since undergoing surgery last July.
