The United States Department of Justice has announced that two prisoners from the Guantánamo Bay detention camp on Cuba have been transferred to Ireland. A third has been returned to his native country Yemen.

More than 220 prisoners are still in captivity in the camp. Eighty of them are to be released without trial. However, 50 of those will be unable to return to their native countries because that would be too dangerous for them. The United States is now looking for countries prepared to accept them.

On Saturday, senior White House officials said it was likely that the camp would not be closed by January 2010, as promised by President Barack Obama after his inauguration.

The closure is being delayed, the officials said, because it is taking more time than expected to decide which prisoners can be released and which ones should be transferred to prisons in the United States. The situation is not being helped by the fact that few countries are willing to take in the detainees who can be released.