MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. <\/p>\n
When they first boarded the plane to Cuba, Abdullah said the detainees were told that they\u2019d be going to Somalia after refueling stops, but they remained at Guantanamo. <\/p>\n
In a longer phone conversation Friday from his family\u2019s home on the outskirts of Mogadishu, Abdullah recounted a difficult month in confinement at the military prison. He said that he and the other seven Somali detainees were held under heavy security. <\/p>\n
They got an hour of exercise each day in an outdoor cage and were put in chains when they were escorted to the telephone area. Guards gave them very little information about how long they\u2019d be at Guantanamo.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was very hard,\u201d Abdullah said. \u201cThe first day when we got there, we had a lot of questions and nobody was answering our questions. So the second day, we started a hunger strike.\u201d <\/p>\n
Abdullah said that in retaliation, guards put him in solitary confinement in an over-air-conditioned room. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey beat me, and they put me in a room, a freezing room, so to scare the other guys,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The others ended their hunger strike, but Abdullah said that he held out until he was allowed to talk with someone at the Somali embassy. It was then that he learned that ICE had planned to deport him to his home country and that the embassy had forwarded his travel documents to ICE.<\/p>\n
![\"man](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/a1bc20-20260925-man-repairs-brake-rotor-on-amazon-truck-600.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Adam Abdullah, 31, had been working legally as an auto mechanic while his asylum application was pending before immigration authorities arrested him on Dec. 12.<\/p>\n
courtesy photo<\/p>\n
After having been away for more than three years, Abdullah said that he is happy to have his freedom back and to see his siblings again, but said that nine months in confinement were difficult. <\/p>\n
His mother fell ill in March while he was jailed. He found out about her illness two days before she died, but authorities would not allow him to make an international call from detention or to depart the country voluntarily. <\/p>\n
\u201cI requested a voluntary departure while she was sick, but they denied it,\u201d Abdullah said. \u201cI told them, my mom is sick. Even when she died, I told them, but there was nothing they could do.\u201d <\/p>\n
As Abdullah readjusts to life in Mogadishu, he said that some people there are treating him with suspicion because of Guantanamo\u2019s infamous, two-decade global reputation as a prison for terrorism suspects<\/p>\n
\u201cEven some of my family members, they are not believing that I went there innocent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
MPR News twice asked the Department of Homeland Security about why it targeted the eight Somalis for deportation and sent them to Guantanamo Bay. <\/p>\n
Both times, DHS replied with identical statements in which a spokesperson called the men \u201cthe worst of the worst,\u201d but the department provided no evidence that they had committed crimes in the U.S. or elsewhere. In a separate statement Thursday, DHS said that it never discloses information about deportation flights \u201cfor operational security and the safety of our personnel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Abdullah said that he was among nine Somali men on the flight to East Africa; besides himself and seven others who\u2019d been held at Guantanamo, a ninth man had boarded the plane in Louisiana prior to its arrival at Guantanamo. He said the flight left Cuba in the middle of the night. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey woke us up and they told us \u2018get ready, you have 30 minutes.\u2019 They put the chains [on us] and they transported us to the airplane.\u201d<\/p>\n
Abdullah recounted that they were chained up throughout the transatlantic flight, which included stops in Puerto Rico, Dakar and Nairobi. In Nairobi, they were transferred to a Somali airline that flew them on the last leg of the trip to Mogadishu. <\/p>\n