On 19 April 2020, Guatemalan President, Alejandro Giammattei, stated that a total of 50 migrants deported by the United States to Guatemala have tested positive for Covid-19. Human Rights advocates had been warning for weeks that deportation flights from the United States, the country with the largest known number of Covid-19 cases, could spread the virus to other nations. Amnesty International’s advocacy director for the Americas stated that the situation was “as predictable as it is horrifying … It was just a matter of time that this would happen.” This situation had already occurred a few weeks before. At the end of March 2020, a Guatemalan man who was deported from the United States tested positive for Covid-19 although he was asymptomatic at the time of deportation.
- Reuters, “Guatemala Says 50 Deported Migrants from U.S. Test Positive for Coronavirus,” 20 April 2020, https://www.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-guatemala-deportees/guatemala-says-50-deported-migrants-from-us-test-positive-for-coronavirus-idUSL1N2C800Z
- N. Gallon, “44 Migrants on One Deportation Flight Tested Positive for Coronavirus,” CNN, 17 April 2020, https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/17/americas/us-migrants-guatemala-coronavirus/index.html
- M. Mendoza & C. E. Shoichet, “The US Deported Him. Days Later, her was Hospitalised with Coronavirus,” CNN, 30 March 2020, https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/30/americas/immigration-guatemala-deportee-coronavirus/index.html
- Health Workers Bringing in Supplies Deliveries by Family Members to a Temporary Shelter for Guatemalan Citizens Deported from the United States, (17 April 2020, CNN, “44 Migrants on One US Deportation Flight Tested Positive for Coronavirus”, https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/17/americas/us-migrants-guatemala-coronavirus/index.html)
- Global Detention Project, “Immigration Detention in Guatemala,” https://www.globaldetentionproject.org/countries/americas/guatemala
