USA AND EL SALVADOR: ILAAD BRINGS THE ARBITRARY DETENTION OF 23 MIGRANTS TO THE UNITED NATIONS

The International League Against Arbitrary Detention (ILAAD), alongside Boston University School of Law International Human Rights Clinic, Center for Gender and Refugee Studies of the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco, Global Strategic Litigation Council for Refugee Rights, and Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights have submitted a complaint to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) on behalf of 23 individuals transferred by the United States to the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) in El Salvador.

VENEZUELAN AND SALVADORAN MIGRANTS ARBITRARILY ARRESTED

This action concerns the arbitrary detention of 23 Venezuelan or Salvadoran migrants who were transferred from the United States to CECOT in El Salvador, a high-security government-run detention facility, since 15 March 2025, as part of a secret agreement between the United States of America and El Salvador.

It is estimated that approximately 288 individuals were transferred on 15 and 30 March and 10 April 2025, to El Salvador, to be imprisoned in CECOT, including 252 Venezuelan nationals and 36 Salvadoran nationals.

The Working Group is thus respectfully requested to extend its opinion to all 288 transferees, as it can infer from this joint complaint and UN sources that their situation is identical to or fundamentally the same as that addressed in this joint complaint.

On July 18, 2025, over 200 Venezuelan transferees were released and sent to Caracas, Venezuela, in exchange for Americans held in Venezuela. Eighteen Venezuelan applicants in the present complaint were released from El Salvador as part of this swap. The other Venezuelan applicants and the two Salvadoran applicants remain in detention.

DETAINED INCOMMUNICADO UNDER MASS EXTRAORDINARY RENDITIONS AND IN VIOLATION OF THEIR RIGHT TO A FAIR TRIAL 

On 3 February 2025, President Nayib Bukele publicly announced that the State of El Salvador was offering to detain “criminals” sent from the United States. This announcement led to a secret agreement between the two countries, resulting in the transfer of at least 288 Venezuelans and Salvadorans wrongly affiliated with criminal organizations, namely Tren de Aragua or MS-13. The execution of the secret agreement was aimed at avoiding all procedural safeguards for the victims, to effectively place them outside the confines of any legal procedure by denying them access to counsel or to any judicial authority to contest the transfers. The United States rendered the deprivation of liberty devoid of any legal basis and discriminatory, and thus arbitrary under categories I, III, and V.

Subjected to enforced disappearance and incommunicado detention by El Salvador, the 23 applicants' situation was known thanks to the leak of the list of those transferred and detained and videos of the transfer published by the American authorities, violating their rights protected under Articles 9(3) and 14 ICCPR and Article 10(1) UDHR, as well as their rights to effectively challenge the legality of their detention.

The applicants' situation raised concerns regarding this practice of indefinite detention and refoulement of the Venezuelans who were part of the swap for Americans held in Venezuela. This situation placed El Salvador in violation of articles 2 and 7 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and articles 2 and 26 of the Covenant.

ACTIONS REQUESTED TO THE UN WORKING GROUP AGAINST ARBITRARY DETENTION

In these circumstances, ILAAD respectfully requested that the Working Group render an opinion finding the deprivation of liberty against the victim to be arbitrary and falling within category I, III and V and :

• Demand that the Government of the United States of America and the Government  of  El Salvador take the necessary measures to remedy the situation of the applicants and the 288 individuals in the same situation without delay and bring it into line with the relevant international standards, including those set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Covenant; 

• Consider that, taking into account all the circumstances of the case, the appropriate remedy would be the immediate release of  all  applicants and individuals in the same situation remaining detained in CECOT  and the granting of the right to obtain redress, including compensation, in accordance with international law; 

• Urge the Government of the United States of America and the Government of El Salvador to ensure that a thorough and independent investigation is carried out into the circumstances surrounding the arbitrary detentions at hand  and to take appropriate action against those responsible for the violation of their rights; 

• Ask the Government of the United States of America and the Government of El Salvador to use all means at its disposal to disseminate the opinion concerning the applicants and the 288 individuals in the same situation as widely as possible.