People As Products: A Human Rights Perspective On The Transfer Of US Prisoners To Salvadoran Jails

On the 4th of February 2025, the President of El Salvador supplied america of America ‘the chance to outsource a part of its jail system’, transferring convicted U.S. criminals into the Salvadoran mega-prison (CECOT) ‘in alternate for a price.’ Amidst an more and more fragile rule of legislation, mounting carceral growth and documented human rights abuses in Salvadoran prisons because the starting of the nation’s state of emergency, it’s crucial to stipulate the potential human rights implications for the transferred prisoners within the probability that the plan will change into a actuality.

Carceral Enlargement In El Salvador’s State Of Emergency:

Since 1992, El Salvador has routinely ranked among the many most harmful international locations on this planet. Gang violence all through the nation provoked punitive responses from successive Salvadoran governments on all sides of the political spectrum, with none ever managing to successfully resolve the problems of violence and insecurity.

The election of El Salvador’s present president, Nayib Bukele, in 2019, broke the nation’s de facto two-party system which was for years marked by  ‘irreconcilable polarisation.’ Bukele is well-known internationally and lauded nationally for his nearly 3 year-long state of emergency which he credit for the close to reversal of murder charges in what was previously the ‘most violent nation within the Western Hemisphere’. Throughout this time, authorities motion has been largely legitimised via fear-mongering and normalisation of punitiveness.

For the reason that starting of the state of emergency, quite a lot of legislative reforms have entered into drive. Amongst different issues, these have allowed for elevated jail sentences, the imprisonment of youngsters as younger as twelve and collective trials of ‘terrorists’ in breach of the rights of a good trial and due course of ensures. Total, these modifications have contributed to huge will increase in arrests throughout the nation, many arbitrarily.  At current, stories from native civil society teams have indicated greater than 73,000 arbitrary arrests in El Salvador since March 2022.  These appear believable figures contemplating that the nation has imprisoned near 2% of its total inhabitants, now rating because the nation with the best incarceration price per capita on this planet – 1,000 detainees per 100,000 of the nationwide inhabitants.

The extended state of emergency has supplied the chance for the federal government to strengthen its carceral grip. Together with the rising numbers of imprisonment, there have been concerted makes an attempt to dehumanise suspected gang members and normalise extreme punitive responses which disregard basic rights and due course of ensures.  In these circumstances, the proposal to switch prisoners out of their very own nation to El Salvador in alternate for cash is in some ways unsurprising. Treating people as exchangeable items is solely the most recent approach in El Salvador’s steady means of carceral growth.

Human Rights Legislation And The Switch Of Prisoners:

There’s appreciable safety supplied to individuals disadvantaged of liberty beneath a number of human rights devices related for the switch of US prisoners to El Salvador. I’ll deal with the jus cogens precept of non-refoulement and the proper to humane therapy. The precept of non-refoulement prevents the switch of individuals to a state the place they’d ‘face a threat of violations of sure basic rights.’ Whereas sometimes linked to refugee legislation, the precept can also be discovered beneath human rights legislation. Underneath this physique of legislation, as soon as ‘the efficient management over the person modifications from one state to a different, the precept applies’ and human rights might successfully block the switch. The UN Particular Rapporteur on Torture and Different Merciless, Inhuman or Degrading Remedy or Punishment has declared the precept of non-refoulement to be an ‘inherent a part of the general absolute and crucial nature of the prohibition of torture’.

The prohibition of refoulement in circumstances the place a severe threat of irreparable hurt to the people involved is explicitly recognised within the Conference towards Torture and different Merciless, Inhuman or Degrading Remedy or Punishment (article 3), the American Conference on Human Rights (article 22(8)) and the Inter-American Conference to Forestall and Punish Torture (article 13(4)). It’s also acknowledged by the UN Human Rights Committee in relation to the Worldwide Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).  The US and El Salvador have ratified the ICCPR and the Conference towards Torture. Furthermore, El Salvador has ratified each of the American Conventions.

The ‘inherently dehumanising essence of El Salvador’s jail mannequin’ embodied by the CECOT facility has been extensively publicised. The centre options overcrowding by design, as prisoners are crammed into areas mentioned to quantity to 1/7 of the internationally advisable minimal customary. Giant teams of males share naked metallic cells with no entry to daylight and no mattresses. Video proof exhibits humiliating practices involving males handcuffed collectively and working semi-naked, demonstrating a disregard for dignity.

The coverage would additionally doubtlessly violate a prisoner’s proper to reintegration. Article 5(6) of the American Conference on Human Rights on the proper to humane therapy declares that ‘punishments consisting of deprivation of liberty shall have as an important intention the reform and social adaptation of the prisoners.’ Furthermore, the United Nations Commonplace Minimal Guidelines for Remedy of Prisoners (Nelson Mandela Guidelines) set up that prisoners shall be permitted to ‘talk with their household and pals at common intervals […] by receiving visits.’

The CECOT jail was not constructed for reintegration. The Salvadoran Justice and Public Safety Minister himself admitted that the aim of sending folks to CECOT is to eradicate ‘this most cancers from society’, making certain that they may ‘by no means stroll out’ of the jail once more. This was confirmed by the United Nations Committee towards Torture, which expressed concern over ‘the absence of social reintegration insurance policies.’

The shortage of consideration for the reintegration of Salvadorans held in CECOT units the scene for what the lives of these transferred would appear like. If there is no such thing as a political will to reintegrate nationals held in CECOT, the chance of reintegration programmes being arrange on behalf of non-nationals appears extraordinarily unlikely. Even when some programmes have been miraculously put in place, the difficulties in offering U.S. prisoners with common contact with their members of the family towards the Nelson Mandela guidelines, calls into severe query any risk of social adaptation.

Measuring Security ‘In Chains And Corpses’:

In 1971, writer James Baldwin noticed that People measure their ‘security in chains and corpses.’  Over half a century later, little has modified on this regard. Lately, and facilitated beneath the state of emergency, El Salvador has continued to increase using jail and additional legitimised punitive responses, together with by way of using no-second-chances insurance policies in relation to gang members disadvantaged of liberty. That is the backdrop towards which the proposal to switch prisoners to the Salvadoran mega-cárcel has been made.

Bukele’s supply to the US is the most recent transfer within the growth of punitivism. Prisons are used as a device of diplomacy and revenue with prisoners because the forex. If carried out, the proposed plan would contravene human rights rules of non-refoulement in addition to the proper to reintegration for prisoners. Past that, it might sign a brand new period for carceral expansionism, legitimising the commerce of individuals as in the event that they have been items. The implications of this on the rule of legislation, democracy and core tenants of human rights legislation shouldn’t be underestimated.