Three Unaccompanied Migrant Children Test Positive for COVID-19

Three unaccompanied migrant children have tested positive for COVID-19 as they remain in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) in New York. 

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Migrants in California Are Unprotected Against Covid-19 Effects

Five staff members and one staff contractor at three separate facilities in New York also recently tested positive. Still, the agency says it will continue to hold separated children in its custody until quarantines at ORR facilities are lifted.

This comes as a 52-year-old Guatemalan migrant held at the Essex County Correctional Facility in Newark, New Jersey, tested positive.

Amid the uncertainty for many migrants in the United States due to the COVID-19 crisis, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) Friday denounced that migrants in California are at higher risk of contracting the virus because they lack legal protections. 

A survey of 1,222 Latin Americans, which this NGO carried out between March 12 and 14, revealed that the COVID-19 had worsened the situation of migrants in the country, at the same time that CHIRLA asked the Californian authorities to include them in the state protection mechanisms.

“One million unemployment insurance claims have been filed. However, undocumented migrants, who are significant reasons why California is the 5th largest economy in the world, are blocked out of filing a claim. Its time to include them during this emergency,” CHIRLA advocate Christopher Sanchez tweeted.

Meanwhile, in Louisiana, asylum seekers held at the Richwood Detention Center have been on hunger strike for at least four days demanding their release as they fear contracting coronavirus.