The United States cannot continue to hide “abuses by deporting asylum seekers,” according to the letter signed by 125 groups.
Dozens of human rights groups have called on the U.S. government to stop detaining asylum seekers at the Guantanamo Bay military base in Cuba, calling the detention facility illegal and inhumane.
A coalition of 125 human rights groups, led by the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) and the Haitian Bridge Alliance, petitioned U.S. President Joe Biden in an open letter on Wednesday.
“We demand that your administration close the Guantanamo Migration Operations Center (MOC) and process asylum seekers encountered at sea in a manner consistent with the human rights obligations of the United States,” the letter states.
“The U.S. government cannot continue to hide its misdirection and abuse of asylum seekers by deporting them to Guantánamo, beyond the reach of their families, advocates, public awareness, and the law,” he added.
The groups also called on the U.S. government to stop intercepting migrants heading by sea from Haiti and sending them back to their country, according to a ProPublica investigation. This is the fate that will befall hundreds of unaccompanied children from 2021 to 2023, according to a ProPublica investigation. .
“All forced repatriations to Haiti, whether by air or sea, must stop now,” said Gelin Josef, executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, who signed the open letter.
A report released in September by the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) brought new scrutiny to the U.S. treatment of migrants traveling by sea, including banning them and detaining them at Guantanamo Bay.
The report claims that asylum seekers at Guantanamo are being held in inadequate “prison-like conditions” with “little or no transparency or accountability.”
According to a former MOC employee cited in the IRAP report, detained migrants are denied personal calls and “punished” if they complain of abuse. Traumatized children, they say, do not receive education or professional psychiatric care.
The State Department denied the report’s conclusions, telling the Miami Herald that the Guantanamo facility is “humanitarian” and that people inside it “are not detained because they have access to places like the base’s grocery stores.”
‘It should not be a death sentence’
Immigration and border security have become top issues ahead of the Nov. 5 election, with presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris calling for more border checks and deportations.
While immigration has risen to record levels during U.S. President Joe Biden’s term, which has been an issue for Trump, the Biden administration introduced new asylum restrictions over the summer that have pushed irregular crossings from Mexico to their lowest level in years. It fell.
border deaths increase
Migrants trying to cross to the United States on foot face a more dangerous journey than ever before, according to the Associated Press.
Citing data from the New Mexico State Medical Examiner’s Office, the Associated Press reported that the number of immigrants who died while traveling to New Mexico last year was 10 times higher than in the previous three years. Smugglers often lure migrants into difficult terrain in extreme temperatures, increasing the death toll.
“Coming to the United States should not be a death sentence,” Major Jon Day, sheriff of Dona Ana County, New Mexico, said at a recent community meeting. “And if we push them out here into the desert areas, they just happen to show up and die.”