A group of ICE agents and migrants they were transporting to an Africa country are stranded in Djibouti in a converted shipping container after a court ruling halted the migrants’ deportation.
Last month, the Trump administration placed eight deportees, who are convicted of violent crimes, on a flight bound for the East African country of South Sudan as part of the administration’s new ‘third country’ policy.
The policy involves sending a migrant to an alternate country if their home country won’t accept them.
But, U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy intervened to stop their flight, arguing that the migrants are entitled to challenge the deportation in the courts. The migrants, along with the 13 ICE officials sent to supervise them landed in Djibouti in late May, where they are currently on a military base, according to ABC News.
Mellissa Harper, a top ICE official said in a sworn declaration on Wednesday that detainees and officers began feeling ill within 72 hours of landing in Djibouti.
Making matters worse, detainees are being held in a shipping container that was previously converted into a conference room.
“The conference room in which the aliens are housed is not equipped nor suitable for detention of any length, let alone for the detention of high-risk individuals,” Harper said. “Notably, the room has none of the security apparatus necessary for the detention of criminal aliens. If an altercation were to occur, there is no other location on site available to separate the aliens, which further compromises the officers’ safety.”
Meanwhile, agents are “sharing very limited sleeping quarters” with only six beds between 13 people, Harper said.
Agents are also at risk of malaria because they did not take anti-malaria medication before arriving in Djibouti. Furthermore, smog clouds created by the burns pits are “making it difficult to breathe and requiring medical treatment for the officers,” Harper said, adding that “it is unknown” how long medical supplies will last.
She also revealed that “officers were warned by US Department of Defense officials of imminent danger of rocket attacks from terrorist groups in Yemen,” upon their arrival in Djibouti.
“The ICE officers lack body armor or other gear that would be appropriate in the case of an attack,” Harper said.
The eight male deportees from Myanmar, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos and Mexico were being deported to South Sudan because their home countries refused to take them back.
Harper’s declaration is part of an emergency petition the Trump administration filed with the Supreme Court asking the high court to lift Judge Murphy’s order for due process.
