Category World News

A delay in medical care that may be related to two deaths has been reported by detainees at three US immigration detention centers, according to a human rights report.

The three facilities in or close to Miami, Florida, Krome North Service Processing Center, Broward Transitional Center, and the Federal Detention Center, detailed women being held in male facilities, rampant overcrowding, and potentially fatal indifference to medical needs.

The abuses, according to its authors, underscore one more aspect of President Donald Trump’s deportation campaign’s human trafficking, which has forced numerous facilities to function beyond their capacity. The administration has also pushed for a massive expansion of deportation infrastructure, including the state-built “Alligator Alcatraz,” which raises their own issues and condemnation.

The associate crisis and conflict director at Human Rights Watch, which co-authored the report with Americans for Immigrant Justice and Sanctuary of the South, warned that “people in immigration detention are being treated as less than human” in a statement that came with the release of the 92-page report.

These incidents are not isolated incidents, but rather the result of a deeply flawed and abuse-ridden detention system, according to Wille.

medical malpractice

The report detailed a lax approach to medical care at the three facilities, including denial of treatment and medication, using current and former inmate testimony, information from family members, lawyers, and information from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency data.

When Marie Ange Blaise, a 44-year-old Haitian national, experienced what would prove to be a fatal medical emergency at the Broward Transitional Center, a detainee reported that guards ignored cries for help in late April.

According to the report, the detainee claimed that the guards ignored her and that we began yelling for help. She was still standing when a rescue team arrived more than half an hour later.

The detainee who described the death claimed that she was also subject to punishment for seeking mental health care, noting that requests for such care were frequently solitaryd.

In another instance, the 44-year-old Ukrainian woman’s wife claimed Maksym Chernyak’s requests to see a doctor were repeatedly postponed because he had a fever, chest pain, and other symptoms while incarcerated in Krome. His wife claims that when he saw a doctor, his wife discovered that he had an elevated blood pressure that needed to be treated.

A cellmate reported that guards responded in 15 to 20 minutes when Chernyak later started vomiting, drooling, and defecating on himself. The cellmate, who was the only one to identify himself as Carlos, claimed that Chernyak had taken illegal synthetic drugs when they did it.

Chernyak was taken off a stretcher, taken to a hospital, and later declared brain dead.

degrading and overcrowding

The report noted widespread overcrowding with detainees who claimed their cell sizes were sometimes more than twice as high as they could at Krome across the three facilities.

Some detainees were forced to sleep on the floor because of the crowding, which resulted in a shortage of toiletries, soap, and other supplies.

Despite being a male-only facility, Krome also handled female processing. Women in the center claimed to be denied access to showers and made to use open restrooms, which might be seen by the male population.

A woman from Argentina claimed that if the men had sat down on a chair, they would have a view of our room and the bathroom. We pleaded for access to the restroom, but the hotel said it was against the law because it was only for men.

Other alleged abuses include excessive force, insufficient food preparation, prolonged shackling, and extreme heat and cold exposure. Detainees described 30 to 40 people being forced to use a bucket as a toilet in a room intended for six.

After being detained by ICE at a regular immigration appointment in February, British businessman Harpinder Chauhan recounted one response from detention center authorities. He spent months switching between facilities.

They warned us that if we pressed on, it would lead to issues we wouldn’t like, he said.

domestic and international law violations

Overall, according to the report’s authors, the allegations constitute federal US immigration detention policies and international law violations.

Despite lacking the necessary resources, they claimed the conditions demonstrated the effects of Trump’s plan to implement mass deportations, which is based on the fact that immigrant criminality is widespread in the US.

Since Trump took office on January 20, the number of people who are typically subject to their right to contest their deportations has increased steadily, from 39, 238 on January 26, to 56, and 816 on July 13, according to information collected by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.

The Trump administration’s detention capacity is expected to increase from 40, 000 to 100, 000 beds by the end of the year, according to The Wall Street Journal, largely by placing a top priority on quick-build tent facilities on military installations and ICE properties.

Trump signed a tax- and spending bill that will add an unprecedented $45 billion to new detention facilities, leading to the construction drive.

According to medical sources, the Israeli military has launched tanks into Deir el-Balah in central Gaza for the first time since Israel launched its assault on the besieged territory in October 2023, killing at least 49 Palestinians in Israeli-led attacks across the country.

A day after its military forced thousands of residents to flee the areas’ southern and eastern neighborhoods, forcing thousands of people to flee to the Mediterranean coast and south to Khan Younis, Israel launched a ground offensive on the city’s densely populated southern and eastern neighborhoods on Monday.

At least three Palestinians were killed and several others were hurt by tank shelling that hit homes and mosques in the area, according to local doctors.

According to Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, who was reporting from Deir el-Balah, gunfire was audible as Israeli tanks began to roll into the area on Monday morning.

He claimed that “we can see that the entire city is being attacked by Israelis.” “We were unable to fall asleep last night.”

Israeli bombardment is ongoing, according to the statement. Israeli military installations continue to bombard various residential areas. Residential homes were flattened before three more squares were destroyed in the city.

He claimed that donkey carts and other forms of transportation were frequently used by Deir el-Balah residents to flee.

Israel’s attacks get worse.

At least five people were killed in a tent in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, as a result of an Israeli airstrike, including a husband, wife, and their two children, according to the medical personnel.

Four aid seekers have been reported dead near a distribution center run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) since dawn on Monday.

In a separate Israeli bombardment in Jabalia al-Balad in the north, five additional Palestinians were killed.

Following an Israeli artillery strike on the nearby Jabalia al-Nazla area, the Palestine Red Crescent Society reported that its teams had recovered one person’s body and evacuated three injured people.

According to a source at al-Shifa Hospital, drone strikes were reported in Gaza City and left people dead.

The Gaza Ministry of Health reported that Israeli forces had killed at least 134 people and injured 1,155 others the day before. Since the start of the war, at least 59, 029 people have died in Gaza.

At least 19 people died from starvation in a single day, according to Gaza health officials on Sunday, highlighting the desperate state of the aid situation.

The World Food Programme’s representative for Palestine, Antoine Renard, claimed in an interview with Al Jazeera that he had been warned for “weeks” that the Palestinians in Gaza were facing starvation.

From occupied East Jerusalem, Renard said, “You have a level of despair that people are willing to risk their lives just to receive any of the assistance actually coming into Gaza.”

We can clearly see how high the number of people who are suffering from malnutrition is actually rising to levels that have never been seen before.

As the humanitarian situation for Palestinian refugees continues to deteriorate, UNRWA, the UN agency, reported receiving “desperate messages of starvation” from inside Gaza, including from its staff.

“Manmade suffering in Gaza must be stopped,” he said. In a statement posted on X, UNRWA said, “Lift the siege and allow aid to enter safely and at scale.”

900, 000 children in Gaza are varying degrees of malnutrition, according to Amjad Shawa, the organization’s head.

Israel must abide by international law, according to a joint statement from 25 nations, including the United Kingdom, France, and other European countries.

The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new levels, according to the foreign ministers of the 25 nations, including Australia, Canada, and Japan. They also condemned “the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, who seek to meet their most basic needs of water and food.

The statement read, “The Israeli government’s aid delivery model is dangerous, causes instability, and undermines the dignity of Gazans.”

According to Shincheonji Church of Jesus, a South Korea-based religious group, over 4,000 members of the church who recovered from COVID-19 are willing to donate plasma for developing a new treatment.

Mr. Man Hee Lee, founder of the Shincheonji Church, said that members of the church are advised to donate plasma voluntarily. “As Jesus sacrificed himself with his blood for life, we hope that the blood of people can bring positive effects on overcoming the current situation,” said Mr. Lee.