UN demands ‘accountability’ after 23 die in US immigration custody 

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - GENEVA — The 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”.

Speaking before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Volker Turk highlighted that “four more people have died in US immigration custody since my last update to this council” in June.

That meant there had been “a total of 23 deaths in 2026 alone” and “there needs to be accountability for these deaths', Turk said in his opening address to the Council.

US President Donald Trump has made combating illegal immigration a top priority of his second term, with authorities rounding up thousands of people and expanding detention centres.

A joint report by Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights in June said that 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.

“I urge the United States to halt the return of people to places where they could suffer irreparable harm, including Haiti, and to ensure due process for all removals to third countries,” he told the council.

The UN rights chief also voiced alarm at the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency’s reported plans to “equip immigration agents with electric shock gloves”, warning this would “increase the violence associated with their operations”.

The plan to purchase the shock gloves, which was first reported by The Associated Press, calls for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the ICE parent agency, to spend up to $20 million on what are described as “distraction and de-escalation” devices.

ICE has come in for criticism for a series of fatal shootings during enforcement operations, including those of two American citizens in Minnesota in January who were involved in anti-ICE protests.

Critics have focused on the forceful tactics used by ICE agents in rounding up migrants and on an alleged lowering of the standards of training for new recruits.

Turning to the West Bank and Gaza, Turk urged countries to end transfers of arms to Israel that risk being used to violate international law, and called on companies to stop business practices supporting illegal settlements.

He said Israel’s annexation of the occupied West Bank was “unfolding, unobstructed,” despite a clear ruling by the International Court of Justice.

“What more will it take for states to take action to prevent the entrenchment of occupation across land earmarked for Palestinians under the two-state solution?” he said.

“They (states) need to end the transfer to Israel of arms that risk being used to violate international law. Companies also need to end business practices that support illegal settlements,” he added.

The rights chief said words of condemnation “ring hollow in the face of deliberate violations and suffering,” calling for greater international efforts toward sustainable peace.

On Gaza, he said Israel has killed more than 1,300 Palestinians in daily strikes despite the ceasefire announced almost a year ago and continues to restrict humanitarian aid.

He said he is appalled by Israeli proposals for the forced expulsion of all Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, as well as executions and torture of Palestinians suspected of collaboration by armed groups affiliated with Hamas.