President Barack Obama on Tuesday called for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility after delivering his plan to Congress to achieve a goal that has long eluded his presidency.  The President wants to transfer the remaining 91 detainees to their home countries or to US military or civilian prisons. But Congress is deeply opposed to terror suspects being held on US soil and is expected to block the move. The prison costs $445m (£316m) to run annually and closing it was a 2009 promise from President Barack Obama. Human rights campaigners have repeatedly complained about the prison in Cuba, which has held 780 detainees since it opened in 2002.

Guantanamo Bay is located on an American naval base in south eastern Cuba. Former US President George W Bush opened it to accommodate foreign terror suspects after the 9/11 attacks on the US.

One of the key complaints from human rights groups is that many detainees have been held there without charge or trial. The president, who will complete his second and final term in January, said it was important not to pass the problem on to his successor.

Obama outlined a blueprint that involves transferring the bulk of remaining detainees to other countries and moving the rest — who can’t be transferred abroad because they’re deemed too dangerous — to an as-yet-undetermined detention facility in the United States. But Republicans in Congress wasted no time in voicing their opposition to the administration’s proposal.