In June 2009, the government of
Palau announced that they would offer temporary asylum to some of the Uyghurs. The government of Palau sent a delegation to Guantanamo, and interviewed some of the remaining Uyghurs. Some of the Uyghurs declined to be interviewed by the Palauns. In the end the government of Palau offered asylum to twelve of the remaining thirteen Uyghurs. Palau declined to offer asylum to one of the Uyghurs who suffered from a mental disorder, brought on by detention, that was too profound to be treated in Palau. On October 31, 2009, Abdulrehim,
Ahmad Tourson,
Abdul Ghappar Abdul Rahman,
Edham Mamet,
Anwar Hassan, and
Adel Noori were released and transferred to Palau. On June 29, 2015, Nathan Vanderklippe, reporting in
The Globe and Mail, wrote that all the Uyghurs had quietly left Palau. The
Globe confirmed that Palau's agreement to give refuge to the Uyghurs was reached after the USA agreed to various secret payments. Those payments included $93,333 to cover each Uyghurs living expenses. The
Globe confirmed that controversy still surrounded former President
Johnson Toribiong who had used some of those funds to billet the Uyghurs in houses belonging to his relatives. Vanderklippe reported that the men had never felt they could fit in with the Palauns. Some of the men compared Palau with a lusher, larger Guantanamo. Some of the men were able to bring their wives to Palau. Attempts to hold most regular jobs failed, due to cultural differences. Attempts to use their traditional leather-working skills to be self-employed failed. Eventually, all six men were employed as night-time security guards, a job that did not require interaction with Palauns. Tragically, one of the men's young toddler, conceived and born on Palau, died after he fell off a balcony. According to Vanderklippe, the men's departure from Palau was quietly arranged with the cooperation of American officials. He reported they left, one or two at a time, on commercial flights. Palaun officials would not share the Uyghurs' destination(s). ==References==