Eight Venezuelans were transferred to prisons with common criminals, after the closure of the facility where undocumented migrants were held arrested on the island of Curaçao.
The non-governmental organization Human Rights Defense Curaçao (HRDC) asked the government of Prime Minister Gilmar Pik Pisas to release the Venezuelans, as they are in unsafe and unhealthy conditions.
“The detention center for undocumented immigrants was closed this week after international criticism for subhuman conditions,” said HRDC in a statement reviewed by the media. Caribbean Chronicles.
The organization indicated that neither the police nor the staff of the SDKK prison (Papaiamento acronym for Curaçao Detention Center) know what to do with Venezuelan migrants seeking protection on the island.
They denounced that these eight people “were transferred against their will this weekend to police cells in Barber and then sent to SDKK Block 1, which also houses criminal suspects.”
“Apparently, there is still no suitable place to locate these people. What has the interdepartmental working group on undocumented persons, which was established on November 9, 2017 through a decree, done in the meantime?
They explained that after the closure of borders, imposed in February 2019, and the suspension of humanitarian flights since December 2021, the deportation process is difficult.
HRDC stressed that migrants invoke the protection of the European Convention on Human Rights, which in its article 3 stipulates that “no one may be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”