HAMILTON, Bermuda — The four men in short-sleeve shirts looked like ordinary tourists, enjoying a Sunday lunch and butter pecan ice cream afterward as they observed the sparkling waters surrounding this Atlantic resort island.
But they are Uighurs, Muslims from the vast stretches of western China, an arid and rugged land that is a far cry from Bermuda’s sandy beaches and quaint narrow streets lined with pastel Victorian-era buildings.
They once were terrorism suspects, but even after U.S. authorities determined the men weren’t a threat to the United States, they were kept at the Guantanamo prison for years because no nation would take them — until a few days ago, when Bermuda agreed to let them in as refugees.
“When we didn’t have any country to accept us, when everybody was afraid of us . . . Bermuda had the courage and was brave enough to accept us,” said Abdulla Abdulgadir, who at 30 is the youngest of the four men who relished their first weekend of freedom in seven years.
Abdulgadir eagerly embraced his new island home. “We are not moving anywhere,” he said.
He and his companions have traded drab prison jumpsuits for comfortable cotton pants and knit shirts, and razor wire-encircled jail compounds for beach cottages. They hope to quickly find jobs in Bermuda — one of the world’s wealthiest places because of its financial and insurance sector — and eventually start families.
The four Uighurs (pronounced WEE’-gurs) also have immediate priorities, such as learning to drive, scuba dive and bowl, said Glenn Brangman, a former military official who is helping reintroduce them to the world outside prison.
“I told them one step at a time,” Brangman said. “They’re beginning to live all over again.”
The men encountered a fisherman while walking along the beach who offered to teach them, and one of the former prisoners, Khelil Mamut, tossed a line into the ocean. He caught a 10-inch fish to the cheers of the other men, interpreter Rushan Abbas said.
Brangman later took them swimming and watched as they climbed the rocks and jumped into the ocean like he did as a boy.
“Normally Bermudians test the temperature of the water,” he said. “But they just went to the edge and jumped straight in.”
