MEXICO CITY – Mexico yesterday said it has requested more information from the US on medical procedures given to migrants at detention centres, after allegations that six detained Mexican women were sterilised without their consent.
Rights campaigners two weeks ago said hysterectomies were carried out at a privately run detention centre in the US state of Georgia.
The Mexican Foreign Ministry said it has sent a diplomatic note “to clarify the situation, requesting information on the medical attention that Mexican citizens receive” at the Irwin County Detention Centre.
It said consulate personnel have interviewed 18 Mexican women who are or were detained there, none of whom “claimed to have undergone a hysterectomy”, an operation involving the removal of all or part of the uterus.
Seven of the women interviewed were treated by the doctor accused of performing the sterilisations, it added.
Another of the women said she underwent a gynaecological operation, although there is nothing in her file to support that she consented to the procedure.
The women interviewed did not deny that they were “victims of bad practices for different reasons”, said the ministry.
Mexico last week announced that it will investigate the allegations of sterilisations, warning that such operations are “unacceptable”.
The claims came from a whistle-blowing nurse at the centre, where some detainees are held under Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.
The nurse said detained women told her that they did not fully understand why they had to get a hysterectomy.
Project South, Georgia Detention Watch, Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights and South Georgia Immigrant Support Network have filed a complaint with the government on behalf of detained immigrants and the nurse.
US congressman Pramila Jayapal has called for an urgent investigation into allegations that at least 17 women were subjected to unnecessary gynaecological procedures that she called “the most abhorrent of human rights violations”. – AFP, September 29, 2020
