Brussels, 27/02/2009 (Agence Europe) - The Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) organisations launched an appeal on Tuesday 24 February to all European countries so that they provide hospitality for 60 of the 200 detainees to be released from the US prison in Guantanamo Bay by the end of the year. “The 60 detainees from countries like Algeria, China, Egypt and Libya, could be subject to torture or prosecution if they return to their own countries, despite being declared innocent by the Bush Administration”, said Reed Brody, HRW spokesman, during a press conference in Brussels. “One can of course say that Guantanamo is a problem created by the United States and that it is up to them to take in these persons. But many of them do not want to go to the United States after what that country has put them through”, said Camilla Jelbart from Amnesty International. The call by NGOs comes at a time when European home ministers meet in Brussels on Thursday to seek to provide a European answer to the announced closure of Guantanamo (EUROPE 9847). MEPs also called on EU countries to help the new US president to close the prison (EUROPE 9833). As if to highlight the ambitions that the USA has towards its European friends, Washington officially called on Spain for assistance on Tuesday. Speaking on public radio, Spain's Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said that his American counterpart, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, had called on Spain for aid. “I replied that Spain, in principle, is open to collaboration by accepting some prisoners if the legal conditions for their detention, once they have been transferred, are acceptable”, said Moratinos who met Hillary Clinton in Washington on Tuesday. The minister explained that the request from the United States to take in detainees will be examined on a case by case basis by Spain, once the legal conditions have been established. Except for Spain, only a minority of European countries - Portugal, Italy, France and Lithuania - have said they would be willing to host the prisoners. Several other countries are ready to make an effort but only if the EU manages to define a common approach to the question. (B.C./transl.jl)