12/10/2009 (Agence Europe) - A former Guantanamo prisoner whom the Belgian government has agreed to house, in order to help the US Administration shut down its detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, arrived in Belgium on 8 October 2009. Like other EU countries, Belgium expressed willingness in the spring of this year to allow former Guantanamo prisoners to come and live in its country in order to help the Obama Administration shut down the detention centre that it opened in January 2002 following the 11 September 2001 attacks. In the United States last week, Republican and Democrat elected representatives reached agreement on two draft laws to allow Guantanamo prisoners to come to the United States to face trial. The draft laws, however, baldly outlaw any former detainee from being released in the United States. There are currently 221 prisoners being detained at Guantanamo. A prisoner was recently sent to Kuwait. (B.C./transl.fl)