The personal data of migrants claiming asylum in the United States has been leaked and published on a government website, the immigration service responsible for the faux pas, which risks endangering the safety of more than 6 people, announced on Wednesday. 000 people.
The Federal Immigration Police (ICE) admitted to having published a list on Monday including the names, status and place of detention of approximately 6,000 asylum seekers in its custody, according to a press release.
The document leaked “during routine updates” according to ICE, which assured that this error was “unintentional”. It remained online for five hours before being deleted.
“The agency is investigating this incident and taking all necessary corrective action,” she added.
The blunder could have serious consequences for those involved.
According to the Los Angeles Times, all of the migrants whose data has been published are currently in ICE detention. This includes asylum seekers fleeing authoritarian regimes such as China, Russia or Iran, as well as others threatened by criminal organizations elsewhere.
This flight puts these migrants in great danger, according to Blaine Bookey, the legal director of the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at the University of California School of Law, based in San Francisco.
“If they are returned to their country, they risk reprisals,” she said indignantly to AFP. “Family members, or friends or colleagues who are still in the country of origin may also be subject to reprisals. »
The risk is all the greater as the migrants concerned are detained by the immigration police, she underlined.
These people ‘have no control over where they are, and their information and location is now in this public record’, while some criminal gangs are quick to pay people to retaliate in jail , she worried.