Report to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances regarding disappearances of migrants and asylum seekers in the United States

Seven immigrants’ rights organizations—Al Otro Lado, Americans for Immigrant Justice, the Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project (FIRRP), Haitian Bridge Alliance, Human Rights First, the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), and RAICES—submitted their concerns to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (UNWGEID) regarding the short-term enforced disappearance of individuals and families seeking protection in the United States.

The UNWGEID is comprised of five independent human rights experts on the issue of enforced disappearances tasked with directly assisting the families of disappeared persons, including by receiving reports of enforced disappearances, requesting that Governments investigate allegations of enforced disappearances, and facilitating States in realizing the rights espoused in the Declaration on the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearances.

These groups raised concerns regarding the treatment of asylum seekers and other migrants by U.S. government officials that often results in short-term enforced disappearances, specifically in relation to individuals held in Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody or interdicted at sea by the U.S. Coast Guard as well as enforced disappearances of those blocked in, expelled or returned to Mexico under U.S. policies including Title 42, Remain in Mexico, and the current asylum ban.

Download the joint report below.