Palau Agrees to Accept Chinese Muslim Detainees from Guantanamo Bay

After months of legal uncertainty, a group of Chinese Muslims who have been held for years at the detention camp for suspected terrorists in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba will be resettled in the remote Pacific island nation of Palau.

Palau President Johnson Toribiong announced Wednesday his government would be "honored and proud" to temporarily resettle the 17 Uighurs being held at the controversial U.S. detention center.

Up to 17 ethnic Uighur Muslims are to be transferred from Guantánamo Bay to the tiny North Pacific island of Palau. The United States has struck the deal to avoid repatriating the inmates to China, where it is feared they could be persecuted or executed.

The Chinese government, which has demanded their return, accuses some Uighurs of leading an Islamist separatist movement in far western China, and Beijing has pressured countries to reject any pleas for asylum.