Thousands of migrants sitting in Mexican detention centers are at risk

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Human rights groups are pleading with Mexico’s top health official to pressure the release of detained migrants at risk of contracting COVID-19.

“Shamefully, the Mexican government has willingly cooperated with the United States in the implementation of policies that harm and endanger migrants and asylum-seekers,” Charanya Krishnaswami, advocacy director for the Americas at Amnesty International USA, told Business Insider. 

Amnesty International is now appealing to Mexico’s top doctor in charge of the COVID-19 response, asking him to make an appeal for the release of detained migrants

The majority of Mexico’s detained migrant population cannot be repatriated due to travel restrictions imposed in Honduras and El Salvador.

Thousands of migrants who cannot be deported are sitting in Mexican detention centers where they are at risk of infection from the novel coronavirus.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador came to power in 2018 pledging to offer Central American migrants economic opportunity amid a new era of progressive governance.

However, critics say his government has placed them at unnecessary risk, which is forcing others to take legal action on their behalf.

“Shamefully, the Mexican government has willingly cooperated with the United States in the implementation of policies that harm and endanger migrants and asylum-seekers,” Charanya Krishnaswami, advocacy director for the Americas at Amnesty International USA, told Business Insider. 

With the Trump administration closing the door to migrants, Krishnaswami said thousands are now at risk of being held in Mexico, during a period of extreme contagion, “in overcrowded, unsanitary, unsafe conditions in Mexican detention centers.”

Source: Business Insider

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