Washington DC, United States.- The new immigration control plan of the United States could violate fundamental human rights, warned this Wednesday the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk.
“The right to request asylum is a human right, regardless of where people come from, their immigration status or how they arrived at the border,” Türk said in a statement.
The senior official stressed that these measures go “against the prohibition of collective expulsions and the principle of non-refoulement.”
Last week, the US President, Joe Biden, announced a new immigration plan that means that people who arrive irregularly at the border are more likely to be subject to immediate expulsions and a ban on entering US territory for five years.
As part of the plan, Biden will allow the monthly entry of up to 30,000 people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, as long as they have a financial sponsor in the country and arrive by plane so as not to overload agents patrolling the border.
The US economy is highly dependent on foreign labor and Biden promised upon his arrival at the White House to provide refuge to asylum seekers and to end his predecessor Donald Trump’s policies against irregular migration.
Many migrants seeking to escape poverty or violence in their home countries undertake a dangerous route to reach the United States.
In the current fiscal year, more than 800 people drowned in the Rio Grande that marks the border between the United States and Mexico, according to border authorities quoted by the US public radio NPR.
In November, migrant apprehensions at the US-Mexico border reached a record 230,000 people.
The border issue is one of Biden’s main political weaknesses, a stone on his path to re-election if he runs for a second term in office as he plans according to his advisers.
Until now, Biden has kept a low profile in the face of criticism from the Opposition, but also from human rights organizations.
The international principle of non-refoulement guarantees that no one should be returned to a country where they may suffer torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
