Donald Trump sealed the border, now the same article 42 is used by Biden

The mass expulsion of Haitians from the United States without any determination as to whether they need protection may be contrary to international law, said Tuesday Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, in a statement.

The government of US president Joe Biden makes the evictions based on Article 42, an article of the Public Health Act that allows extraordinary measures to be taken during a pandemic to safeguard public health. Under former President Donald Trump, Article 42 was used at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic to hermetically seal the northern and southern border of the US, with Canada and Mexico.

As a result, no more migrants came in, which, according to human rights activists, was exactly the intention of the government. Trump officials always maintained that the measure was only intended to contain the spread of the coronavirus among the border guards and immigration facilities.

People who are currently entering the US are often not given the opportunity to apply for asylum under Article 42. Grandi takes offense. He accuses the US of ” denying most people arriving at the south-western land border of the US any possibility of seeking asylum.” The US would violate ‘international standards’, according to Grandi.

Grandi was shocked by images of what he called “miserable conditions” under a concrete viaduct in Del Rio, Texas, where more than 14,000 Haitians had gathered on Sunday in the hope of seeking asylum. Images of border guards on horseback using reins as whips against migrants went around the world.

,,Although some people at the border may not be refugees, anyone who claims to have a well-founded fear of persecution in their country of origin should be able to apply for asylum,” said Shabia Mantoo, spokesperson for the UN refugee organization UNHCR.

Only after that application has been assessed can a person be deported or deported according to Mantoo.

Conditions along the American southern border with Mexico have also led to unrest in American politics. That’s what Republican senator Mitt Romney called the camp Tuesday “a disaster.”

Democratic President Joe Biden was also critical of the deportations from his own party. Senate Leader Chuck Schumer called the deportation of migrants to Haiti ‘contrary to common sense’. He also expressed his anger at the tactics used by border guards to control the crowd.

Since Sunday several hundred people have been sent to Haiti from the camp in Del Rio. Thousands more have been transferred to American prisons and shelters. U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas announced that deportation flights to Haiti will begin on Tuesday.

On the Mexican side of the border, a new camp has emerged, where migrants are helped by groups such as the Red Cross and Médecins Sans Frontières, as well as the UN migration office. Residents of nearby Ciudad Acuna bring food to the migrants.