US detention of asylum seekers ‘inhumane and wasteful’: Report

The Biden administration has imprisoned tens of thousands of asylum seekers in violation of United States and international law, a rights group has said in a new report, just weeks before large numbers of people are expected to arrive at the country’s southern border.

In a report published on Thursday, Human Rights First said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has held tens of thousands of people in jails instead of allowing them to live in the US with their families or sponsors as their asylum cases are decided.

The group said that jailing asylum seekers is “inhumane, unnecessary, and wasteful” and has needlessly subjected people to severe physical and psychological harm, medical neglect and discrimination.

“Jailing asylum seekers is fundamentally dehumanising and cruel,” said Becky Gendelman, an associate attorney for research refugee protection at the group and the report’s author.

“It cuts them off from legal representation and subjects them to horrendous conditions of confinement, it inflicts physical and psychological harm and it can be re-traumatising for people who have fled persecution,” Gendelman told Al Jazeera in an interview.

The report, entitled “‘I’m a prisoner here’: Biden administration policies lock up asylum seekers”, found that since President Joe Biden took office in January of last year, asylum seekers were held in detention centres for 3.7 months on average.

This included those who passed their so-called credible fear interviews, during which an asylum seeker is expected to explain to an immigration officer why returning to their country of origin could put them in danger.

The detention of asylum seekers is generally prohibited under international law, except in exceptional circumstances. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights prohibits detention that is unreasonable, unnecessary, disproportionate or arbitrary.

Rights organisations also say the detention of asylum seekers, who have not committed a crime, is unlawful and a violation of their right to freedom of movement.

The report comes as the US on May 23 is expected to end a pandemic-era policy invoked in March 2020 that allowed authorities to expel the majority of those seeking asylum at the border, citing the need to protect the country from the spread of the coronavirus.

More than 1.8 million expulsions have been conducted under Title 42, with asylum seekers sent back to Mexico or their country of origin, according to government figures.

“While the Biden administration has turned away and expelled many asylum seekers under Title 42 it has also subjected many whom it doesn’t expel to prolonged and cruel detention,” Gendleman said.