Human Rights Watch condemns the US, Mexico and Canada’s treatment of migrants

Human Rights Watch sent a letter on Tuesday to President Biden, Mexican President Lopez Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau urging them to commit to respecting the rights of migrants and asylum seekers and to work together to fight climate change.

“Under Presidents Biden and López Obrador, the United States and Mexico have committed serious, systemic, and ongoing violations of the rights of migrants and asylum seekers,” said the letter.

Human Rights Watch (HWR), a non-governmental organization (NGO), accuses the Biden administration and Mexico of systemically expelling asylum seekers without allowing them to seek protection. “Returning migrants to a place where their lives are threatened is a violation of international human rights law,” says the letter.

The letter claims that the U.S. and Mexico have subjected migrants and asylum seekers to human rights abuses. Mexico has used soldiers and immigration agents to assault migrants and representatives of the country’s human rights commission who have attempted to document the abuses, claims the group. Over 160 cases of misconduct and abuse by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Border Patrol Officials have been reported.

“In both countries, detained migrants have complained of crowded and unsanitary conditions and a lack of measures to prevent the spread of the virus that causes Covid-19, even as the Biden administration uses the pandemic as a pretext to summarily expel asylum seekers,” said HRW Executive Director Kenneth Roth.

Furthermore, the letter condemns the treatment migrants and asylum seekers receive when they arrive in Canada. On some occasions, they are incarcerated, handcuffed and subjected to solitary confinement. 

Concerning climate change, HRW claims that Canada, Mexico and the U.S. are worsening the problem as the world’s top greenhouse gas emitters.

“Your governments have a human rights obligation to protect people from the foreseeable harms caused by the climate crisis and to avert its most catastrophic impacts by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. We urge you to commit to meeting this obligation by working together to hasten the transition in North America from fossil fuels to clean and renewable energy sources,” reads the letter.

The letter argues that while the administrations of all three countries have promised to tackle climate change, they have failed to implement any concrete actions.

The letter was sent a day before the ninth North American Leader’s Summit in Washington D.C. Some of the issues that will be discussed at the summit include migration, climate change and Covid-19.