Volker Turk also voiced alarm at the ICE agency’s reported plans to ‘equip immigration agents with electric shock gloves’
2-MIN READ2-MINAgence France-PressePublished: 1:32am, 8 Sep 2026The United Nations rights chief on Monday demanded accountability for swelling numbers of deaths in US immigration custody, and urged Washington to halt deportations to places where people face “irreparable harm”.
That meant there had been “a total of 23 deaths in 2026 alone”, he said, insisting that “there needs to be accountability for these deaths”.
A joint report by Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights in June said the rate of people dying in ICE custody has reached its highest level in over a decade amid Trump’s crackdown.
The UN rights chief on Monday also called out a range of other US immigration enforcement practices, including forcing migrant returns to dangerous places and to countries they had no connection to.
