UN rights chief calls for probe into migrant deaths in US detention centres

Deaths of immigrants held in US detention centres have surged during Donald Trump’s second term.The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, has called for an independent investigation into the severe uptick in deaths in migrant detention centres during President Donald Trump’s second term in office.In a statement on Friday, Turk expressed concern over the lack of transparency over those deaths, at least 19 of which have occurred so far this year, according to US government statistics.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3‘Less than human’: Report details Trump Immigration detention centre abuseslist 2 of 3Public opinion shifts on ICE as advocates warn of US ‘inflection point’list 3 of 3US Senate passes $70bn funding plan for ICE, Border Patrolend of list“Those responsible for violations of the law must be held to account, and the rights of the victims’ families to truth, justice and reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence must be upheld,” the UN rights chief said.Deaths in immigrant detention centres have surged during Trump’s second term in office, a by-product of what rights groups and Immigration lawyers have depicted as systematic neglect, inhumane conditions and abuses.The Trump administration has sought to rapidly expand the network of immigrant detention centres, some operated by private contractors, as it seeks to carry out the mass deportation of immigrants in the US.Trump stated in a social media post on Friday that his administration has the “Highest Average Daily Arrest Rate by ICE and CBP, including Total Detention, with Final Orders of Removal, than any other president, by far!”The reported death of a Georgian man, Mamuka Artmeladze, in a detention facility in Louisiana on June 4 increased the number of fatalities so far this year to 19, compared to 33 last year and 11 in 2024.“The mortality rate of deaths in ICE custody is at its highest level in over a decade and has more than doubled since Trump’s second term began,” the watchdog group Human Rights Watch wrote in a report on detention deaths earlier this month. “The rate is nearly four times that of the Biden administration and more than two and a half times as high as that of the first Trump administration.”