The Romanian Embassy in the United States announced on Wednesday that 47 Romanian nationals whose deportation formalities have been completed are being held in custody in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement centers and that their transportation to the Guantanamo naval base is not being considered.

Romania cooperates closely with all American agencies for ensuring border security and migration control in the United States. Up to this date, there has been no situation that would result in the placement of Romanian citizens in facilities outside the United States. As a rule, Romanian nationals identified as illegal aliens on domestic American soil are returned to Romania based on procedures established in the line of Romanian-U.S. cooperation, the Embassy specified in a statement.

The Embassy is in permanent contact with the American authorities in order to clarify the situation of the Romanians who are about to be returned to Romania.

The Embassy’s clarifications follow a report published on Tuesday by the U.S. daily Politico, citing documents it had access to, according to which 100 Romanians in an illegal situation are being considered for transfer to Guantanamo.

The Romanian Embassy in the United States took note of the Politico report and immediately requested the American authorities to confirm the accuracy of the information.

According to the news item, the Trump administration is planning to dramatically ramp up sending undocumented migrants to Guantanamo Bay starting this week, with at least 9,000 people being vetted for transfer. The transfers to Guantanamo could start as soon as Wednesday, the documents state. The expectation is that the detainees would be held at the facility temporarily before being deported to their countries of origin.

The official reason for the transfers is to free up bed space at detention facilities on domestic American soil, but the use of the notorious facility, which has long housed terrorism suspects, would also send another signal aimed at deterring illegal immigration to the United States.

The plans have come together only in the last few days and could still change, the documents say. But the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may not notify the countries of the individuals affected in advance, according to the documents.

Spokespeople for DHS and the State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Some 800 Europeans — including one Austrian, 100 Romanians and 170 Russians — are being considered for the transfers, according to one of the documents.

AGERPRES