United Nations, January 16 (RHC)-- The United Nations is warning the United States’ Title 42 pandemic policy is a risk to international human rights and refugee laws and protections.  Title 42 has been used to block over 2 million migrants from seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border. 

Last week, the Joe Biden administration announced it would also begin expelling Haitian, Cuban and Nicaraguan asylum seekers to Mexico as part of an expansion of the policy. 

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said in a statement: “The right to seek asylum is a human right, no matter a person’s origin, immigration status, nor how they arrived at an international border.  These measures appear to be at variance with the prohibition of collective expulsion and the principle of non-refoulement.”