Responding to the Global Detention Project’s Covid-19 Survey, the UN Human Rights regional office in Panama (ROCA) reported that El Salvador has not established a moratorium on new immigration detention orders and that the country is not contemplating the measure. ROCA also explained that no immigration detainees have been released and that there are no “alternatives to detention” programmes employed in the country. As regards deportations and expulsions, the UN office said that while these have been temporarily suspended, there is no specific measure prohibiting them. ROCA also stated that returned migrants who are detained in quarantine centres are tested for Covid-19. According to IOM, more than 1,100 people have been returned to El Salvador, mostly from the United States (more than 95 percent) during 11 March – 30 April.
On 7 April, 70 Salvadoran nationals were returned from the United States on a flight from Houston airport. Upon arrival, they were transferred to one of the 11 quarantine centres in the country for a duration of 30 days. Five days after their arrival, one returnee developed symptoms of Covid-19, but medical authorities only provided him paracetamol and did not test him for the disease. A month later, when around 100 people were in the quarantine centre, the government decided to test all detainees. A week later, it was confirmed that a few had been infected. El Faro reported that these Salvadoran detainees had been detained in different detention centres in the United States and none of them had been tested upon entry to the centres or prior to deportation. On 22 May, the country’s Ombudsman (Procuraduría para Derechos Humanos or PDDH) announced that they had received complaints from people detained in one of the quarantine centres, the Gimnasio Nacional centre, regarding three positive Covid-19 cases. However, the Ombudsman said that relevant authorities had not communicated the exact number of Covid-19 cases within the centre and that the director of the Salvadoran immigration authority, Ricardo Cucalon, had violated the PDDH law as he had refused to provide information to the ombudsman. The director did not respond to two requests sent on 27 April and 11 May and requested his personnel not to collaborate with the PDDH.
As of 29 May, there remained 108 Salvadoran nationals in the Gimnasio Nacional quarantine centre.
On 14 May 2020, a habeas corpus action was presented to the Supreme Court by twenty-two returnees urging authorities to allow them to return to their homes as they have been detained for forty-five days and have been tested for Covid-19 twice. The returnees’ legal representative said that another reason such a request is being made are the poor hygienic conditions within the centre. Social distancing is not being implemented and when it rains, mattresses get wet and the centre floods. On 20 May, the Ministry of Health informed detainees that they would be transferred to their homes. Nonetheless, there are still migrants in the Gimnasio Nacional that are waiting for a third Covid-19 test and have not yet been released.
As regards the country’s prisons, on 26 May, health authorities in the country announced that there have been at least 36 positive cases of Covid-19. Twenty five were detected in a prison in San Vincente and 11 in the Quezaltepeque prison. The news comes after reports indicating an extreme toughening of detention conditions following violence in the past few weeks. Photographs showing detainees grouped together and wearing only underwear and without adequate protection or physical distancing have been published (see 2 May El Salvador update on this platform).
- Reuters, “Thirty Six Inmates Test Positive for Coronavirus in Salvadoran Prisons,” 25 May 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2020/05/25/world/americas/25reuters-health-coronavirus-elsalvador.html
- OHCHR (Byron Cardenas), Global Detention Project Covid-19 Survey, 1 June 2020.
- G. Cáceres & N. R. Zablah, “Cuatro Deportados por Estados Unidos Dieron Positivo al Covid-19 en El Salvador,” Elfaro, 29 May 2020, https://elfaro.net/es/202005/el_salvador/24467/Cuatro-deportados-por-Estados-Unidos-dieron-positivo-al-covid-19-en-El-Salvador.htm
- IOM, “Encuesta de Medios de Vida a Población Migrante Retornada en El Salvador en el Marco del Covid-19,” 27 May 2020, https://reliefweb.int/report/el-salvador/encuesta-de-medios-de-vida-poblaci-n-migrante-retornada-en-el-salvador-en-el
- Inside a Temporary Quarantine Centre, Gimnasio Adolfo Pineda, (El Faro, “Cuatro Deportados por Estados Unidos Dieron Positivo al Covid-19 en El Salvador,” 29 May 2020, https://elfaro.net/es/202005/el_salvador/24467/Cuatro-deportados-por-Estados-Unidos-dieron-positivo-al-covid-19-en-El-Salvador.htm)
