After the death of 23 migrants detained in the United States, the UN demands that Washington “be held accountable”

The United Nations high commissioner for human rights says Washington should “to be accountable” after the death of 23 migrants in detention since the start of the year in the United States.

“Four people have died while in U.S. immigration custody since (June)bringing the total to 23 deaths in 2026 alone. There will be accountability for these deaths”declared Volker Türk at the opening of a session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

In early August, United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced the death of a Salvadoran national at a New Jersey migrant center. ICE has become the symbol of the excesses of this policy of mass expulsion seen as particularly brutal. Mr. Türk also said “concerned that plans to equip immigration officers with electrically pulsed gloves risk increasing the violence associated with their interventions”.

Call to “guarantee respect for legal procedure”

According to data from the NGOs Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Physicians for Human Rights, around fifty detainees have died in ICE detention centers since Donald Trump’s return to the White House in January 2025.

The US president has expanded the number of people subject to deportation, targeting in particular those who benefited from legal protections allowing them, under previous administrations, to live and work in the United States due to the risk of persecution in their countries of origin.

The US government maintains that, although it cannot return these people to their countries of origin, nothing prohibits it from sending them to third countries. According to an AFP investigation, the United States has proposed agreements worth millions of dollars and brandished the threat of visa restrictions to encourage third countries, particularly in Africa, to accept expelled people, Africans or from other continents.

“I urge the United States to stop the return of people to places where they could suffer irreparable harm, including Haiti, and to ensure due process is followed for all deportations to third countries”urged Mr. Türk.