inhumane

Families of many of the Palestinian prisoners being released by Israel under an exchange deal say their long-awaited freedom is bittersweet after they learned their loved ones would be deported to third countries.

At least 154 Palestinian prisoners being freed on Monday as part of the swap for Israeli captives held in Gaza will be forced into exile by Israel, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office said.

Those to be deported are among a larger group of Palestinians being released by Israel – 250 people held in Israeli prisons along with about 1,700 Palestinians seized from the Gaza Strip during two years of Israel’s war, many of whom were “forcibly disappeared”, according to the United Nations. For its part, Hamas and other Palestinian groups released 20 Israeli captives under a Gaza ceasefire agreement.

There are no details yet about where the freed Palestinians will be sent, but in a previous prisoner release in January, dozens of detainees were deported to countries in the region, including Tunisia, Algeria and Turkiye.

Observers said the forced exile illegally breaches the citizenship rights of the released prisoners and is a demonstration of the double standards surrounding the exchange deals.

“It goes without saying it’s illegal,” Tamer Qarmout, associate professor in public policy at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, told Al Jazeera.

“It is illegal because these are citizens of Palestine. They have no other citizenships. They’re out of a small prison, but they’re sent to a bigger prison, away from their society, to new countries in which they will face major restrictions. It’s inhumane.”

Families shocked by deportations

Speaking to Al Jazeera in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, relatives of Palestinian prisoner Muhammad Imran said they were shocked to learn he was among those Israel had decided to force into exile.

Raed Imran said the family had previously received a call from an Israeli intelligence officer, confirming that his brother, 43, would be released home and asking where he would stay on his release.

But on Monday, the family was dismayed to learn that Muhammad, who was arrested in December 2022 and sentenced to 13 life terms, would be deported.

“Today’s news was a shock, but we are still waiting. Maybe we’ll get to see him somehow,” Imran said. “What matters is that he is released, here or abroad.”

The exile means his family might be unable to travel overseas to meet him due to Israel’s control of the borders.

“We might be looking at families who will be seeing their loved ones deported and exiled out of Palestine but have no way of seeing them,” said Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim, who has reported extensively from the occupied West Bank.

‘A win-win for Israel’

According to Qarmout, the deportations are intended to deprive Hamas and other Palestinian groups of being able to claim any symbolic win from the exchange and to remove the deported prisoners from any involvement in political or other activities.

“Exile means the end of their political future,” he said. “In the countries they go to, they will face extreme constraints, so they will not be able to be active in any front related to the conflict.”

He said the deportations amounted to forcible displacement of the released prisoners and collective punishment for their families, who would either be separated from their exiled loved ones or forced to leave their homeland if they were permitted by Israel to travel to join them.

“It’s a win-win for Israel,” he said, contrasting their experiences to those of the released Israeli captives, who will be able to resume their lives in Israel.

“It’s more double standards and hypocrisy,” he said.

Additional reporting by Mosab Shawer in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank

ADELANTO, Calif. — As federal immigration agents conduct mass raids across Southern California, the Adelanto ICE Processing Center is filling so rapidly it is reigniting longtime concerns about safety conditions inside the facility.

In less than two months, the number of detainees in the sprawling complex about 85 miles northeast of Los Angeles has surged from around 300 near the end of April to more than 1,200 as of Wednesday, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

The largest detention center in California, Adelanto has for years been the focus of complaints from detainees, attorneys and state and federal inspectors about inadequate medical care, overly restrictive segregation and lax mental health services.

But now, critics — including some staff who work inside — warn that conditions inside have become increasingly unsafe and unsanitary. The facility, they say, is woefully unprepared to handle a massive increase in the number of detainees.

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“It’s dangerous,” a longtime Adelanto detention center staff member told The Times, speaking on condition of anonymity because they did not want to lose their job. “We have no staffing for this and not enough experienced staff. They’re just cutting way too many corners, and it affects the safety of everybody in there.”

On Tuesday, U.S. Rep Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park), toured Adelanto with four other Democratic members of Congress from California amid growing concern over the rapidly increasing number of detainees and deteriorating conditions inside the facility.

The facility’s manager “has to clearly improve its treatment of these detainees,” Chu said at a news conference after inspecting the facility for nearly two hours.

Some detainees told lawmakers they were held inside Adelanto for 10 days without a change of clothes, underwear or towels, Chu said. Others said they had been denied access to a telephone to speak to loved ones and lawyers, even after repeatedly filling out forms.

“I was just really shocked to hear that they couldn’t get a change of underwear, they couldn’t get socks for 10 days,” Chu told The Times. “They can’t get the PIN number for a telephone call. What about their legal rights? What about the ability to be in contact with their families? That is inhumane.”

Immigration Customs and Enforcement and GEO Group, the Florida-based private prison corporation that manages the Adelanto detention center, did not answer The Times’ questions about staffing or conditions inside the facility. The Times also sent questions to Homeland Security assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin, but they were not answered.

Lucero Garcia, third from left, gave an emotional account about her uncle who was taken from his work at an Orange County car wash. She and others were outside the Adelanto ICE Processing Center on Tuesday.

(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)

Over the last two weeks, new detainees have been forced to sleep on the floors of common areas without blankets and pillows and have spent days in the facility before they were provided with clean clothes and underwear, according to interviews with current detention center staff, immigration attorneys, and members of Congress who toured the facility. Some detainees have complained about lack of access to medication, lack of access to drinking water for four hours, and being served dinner as late as 10 p.m.

One detainee was not allowed his high blood pressure pills when family tried to bring it in, said Jennifer Norris, a staff attorney at Immigrant Defenders Law Center. In some cases, she said, lax medical care has led to emergencies: a Vietnamese man passed out last week because staff didn’t provide him with his necessary medication.

“It’s clear that with the ramp up enforcement, Adelanto just does not have the staff to keep pace with the aggressive enforcement that’s happening now,” Norris said. “It is bizarre. We spend millions of dollars on ICE detention and they’re not even able to provide basic necessities for the new arrivals.”

Long before Trump administration officials announced in May they were setting a new national goal of arresting 3,000 unauthorized immigrants a day, Adelanto workers worried about understaffing and unsafe conditions as the center processed new detainees.

At the end of last year, the facility held only three people. As of Wednesday, the number had swelled to 1,218, according to the ACLU of Southern California.

The climb is only partly due to the ICE agents’ recent escalation of immigrant raids.

The 1,940-bed Adelanto facility has been operating at a dramatically reduced capacity since 2020 when civil rights groups filed a class-action lawsuit demanding a drastic reduction in the number of people detained at Adelanto on the basis that they faced severe risk of contracting COVID-19. A federal judge forced the detention center to release detainees and prohibit new intakes and transfers.

But a series of federal court orders this year — the most recent in early June — has allowed the facility to fully reopen just as federal immigration agents fan out into neighborhoods and workplaces.

“As soon as the judge lifted the order, they just started slamming people in there,” an Adelanto staffer told The Times.

Eva Bitrán, director of immigrant rights at the ACLU of Southern California, said “almost everybody” held in the Adelanto facility had no criminal record before they arrived in the detention center.

“But even if they had a criminal record, even if they had served their time in criminal custody and then been brought to the ICE facility, nobody deserves 10 days in the same underwear,” Bitrán said. “Nobody deserves dirty showers, nobody deserves moldy food.”

The Adelanto ICE Processing Center.

(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)

Mario Romero, an Indigenous worker from Mexico who was detained June 6 at the Ambiance Apparel warehouse in downtown L.A., was one of dozens who ended up in Adelanto.

His daughter, Yurien Contreras, said she and her family were traumatized after her father was “chained by the hands, feet and waist,” taken to the Metropolitan Detention Center downtown and then “held hostage” in a van from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. with no access to water, food or a restroom.

“Little did we know,” she said, “it was only the beginning of the inhumane treatment our families would endure.”

At Adelanto, she said, officials try to force her father to sign documents without due process or legal representation. The medical care was “less than minimal,” she said, the food was unsustainable and the water tasted like Clorox.

Yurien Contreras’ father was taken by ICE agents from his workplace at Ambiance Apparel in Los Angeles.

(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)

Lucero Garcia told The Times she was concerned about her 61-year-old uncle, Candido, who was detained June 9 as he worked at his job at Magnolia Car Wash in Fountain Valley.

But when she visited him Saturday, “he didn’t want to share much,” she said. “He’s worried more about us.”

This is not the first time the Adelanto detention center has faced scrutiny.

In 2018, federal inspectors issued a report finding “serious violations” at the facility, including overly restrictive detainee segregation and guards failing to stop detainees from hanging braided bed sheet “nooses.”

Five years later, current and former Adelanto detainees filed a class-action lawsuit against GEO Group, alleging the company “systematically poisoned” inmates by improperly using toxic chemicals to clean the detention center. GEO Group has denied the claims in the class-action suit.

In April, the California Department of Justice released a report that found all of the state’s six privately operated immigration detention facilities, including Adelanto, fell short in providing mental health care for detainees, medical record keeping, suicide prevention strategies, and use of force against detainees with mental health conditions.

But two staffers who spoke to The Times said they had never experienced such unsafe conditions at Adelanto.

As the prison population has increased over the last few months, they said, staff are working long hours without breaks, some even falling asleep driving home after their shifts and having car accidents. Shift duty officers with no security experience were being asked to make decisions in the middle of the night about whether to put detainees who felt threatened in protective custody. Officers, including people from food service, were being sent to the hospital to check on detainees with tuberculosis and hepatitis.

“Everyone’s just overwhelmed,” a staffer said.

Officers working over their allotted schedules were often tired when they were on duty, another staffer said.

In May, a detainee went into anaphylactic shock and ended up intubated in the hospital, the staffer said, because an officer wasn’t paying attention or was new and gave the detainee, who’s allergic to seafood, a tray that contained tuna.

At a May meeting, the warden told all executive staff that they needed to come to work dressed down on Tuesdays and Thursdays, the staffer said, because they would have to start doing janitorial work.

On June 2, a detainee at the Annex facility made his way from a medical holding area, through four locked doors, all the way back to his dorm unescorted, the staffer said — a major security breach.

“If he would’ve wanted to escape he would’ve been gone,” the staffer said. “All he did is push the buttons to access the doors and they were open for him, no questions. Apparently, whoever was in central control was too tired to check or too inexperienced.”

The detention center was becoming unsanitary, the staffer said, with trash bins not promptly emptied, bathrooms not cleaned and floors not mopped as they should be.

As new waves of detainees flooded into the facility over the last two weeks, the staffer said, the facility was chaotic and lacking basic supplies.

“We didn’t have enough to provide right away,” they said, “so we’re scrambling to get clothes and mattresses.”

Mark Ferretiz, who worked as a cook supervisor at Adelanto for 14 years until April, said former colleagues told him officers were working 16- to 20-hour shifts multiple days in a row without breaks, officers were slow to respond to physical fights between detainees, and food was limited for detainees.

“They had five years to prepare,” Ferretiz, who had served as a union steward, said of his former supervisors. “I don’t know the reason why they weren’t prepared.”

While the supply shortages appeared to ease some in recent days — a shipment of clothes and mattresses had arrived by Tuesday, when members of Congress toured — the detention center was still understaffed, the current staffer said.

Detainees were being served food on paper clam-shell to-go boxes, rather than regular trays, a staffer said, because the facility lacked employees to wash up at the end of mealtimes.

“Trash pickup’s not coming fast enough, ” a staffer said, noting that piles of trash sat outside, bagged up, beside the dumpsters.

In a statement last week, GEO Group Executive Chairman George C. Zoley said fully opening the Adelanto facility would allow his company to generate about $31 million in additional annualized revenues.

“We are proud of our approximately 350 employees at the Adelanto Center, whose dedication and professionalism have allowed GEO to establish a long-standing record of providing high-quality support services on behalf of ICE in the state of California,” Zoley said.

But after touring the facility, members of Congress said officials did not provide answers to basic questions.

When Chu asked officials about whether California immigrants were being taken to other states, she said, they said, “We don’t know.”

In this Friday’s Mirror Daily Digest, we’ve pulled together the biggest stories of the day from jail horror after a prison officer was reportedly stabbed to airport chaos leaving many Brits distressed

Welcome to the Mirror’s Daily Digest, where we’ll be pulling together all the best stories of the day from our News, Showbiz, Royal teams and more. This Friday, we’re bringing you the biggest stories from the newsroom – from a prison officer who was left with ‘serious injuries’ after reportedly being stabbed to the Tenerife airport chaos which left Brits trapped in sweltering queues.

Meanwhile, our News team has been following the Liverpool parade crash suspect Paul Doyle’s appearance at Liverpool Magistrates’ Court today. We’ve also got the latest on Go Compare star Wynne Evans, who has been axed by the BBC following his Strictly Come Dancing scandals.

Horror as ‘prison officer stabbed’ at jail housing notorious inmates

Our News team has reported that a prison officer has been rushed to hospital after he was reportedly stabbed with a flick knife. Emergency services rushed to HMP Long Lartin at around 10 am this morning, following reports that an inmate knifed an officer. It has been reported that the weapon was dropped into the prison via a drone.

A Prison Service spokesperson confirmed the attack and said an investigation is underway. They said: “Police are investigating an attack on a prison officer at HMP Long Lartin. We will not tolerate assaults on hardworking staff and will always push for the strongest punishments against perpetrators.”

A spokesperson for West Mercia Police added: “We were called to HMP Long Lartin in South Littleton around 10am this morning (Friday, May 30), following a report someone had been assaulted by an inmate. One man was taken to hospital with serious injuries after sustaining a stab wound. The inmate remains within the prison and the investigation is on-going. “

Read the full story here.

Wynne Evans axed by BBC after Strictly scandal

After months of Strictly Come Dancing scandals, Wynne Evans has been axed by the BBC, our Showbiz team reported this afternoon. The Go Compare star revealed that he has not had his contract renewed and will not be back with the BBC for his radio show – and thus has decided to continue to do his radio show away from the BBC.

It comes after the TV personality hit headlines during his time on the dance show, where he was shown grabbing his professional partner Katya’s waist before she pushed his hand away, but he later insisted it was a joke. He then came under fire for using the term ‘spit roast’ to Janette Manrara during a Strictly photocall but he later insisted it was directed at Jamie Borthwick and nothing to do with Janette.

As a result of the comment, he was axed from the Strictly tour – and then a video emerged of him sending a sex toy to his co-star Jamie, which both were heavily criticised for. In an emotional statement, he said: “My beloved Wynners, From the very depths of my heart — thank you. These past few months, your love has been the light in my darkest days. Every message, every word of encouragement, every moment you stood by me has carried me through more than you could ever know.”

“It breaks my heart to say the BBC has decided not to renew my contract so I won’t be returning to my radio show. I’m gutted. That show wasn’t just work — it was home. It was us. We laughed, we cried, we sang like nobody was listening. And somehow, through the airwaves, we became a family.”

Read the full story here.

Brits caught in ‘inhumane’ airport chaos as passengers fight and vomit in crush

Our Travel team has been following the latest updates on the Tenerife South Airport chaos, after British travellers found themselves trapped in two-hour queues and “inhuman” conditions at the start of the school holidays. Last Monday night, more than 500 people found themselves packed into a waiting area at the Canary Islands travel hub.

They waited for hours to pass through the security as a bottleneck formed by two checkpoints, each staffed by two National Police officers. Top Spanish officials will now hold an urgent meeting after the tourists faced “inhuman” conditions at the start of the school holidays.

Many were held on a sweltering plane for 45 minutes, only to disembark and find broken escalators and lengthy queues for passport checks. Becks Gravil was one of those swept up in the chaos. It took her family two hours to leave the airport after landing at 8.30pm. “Never in my life have I ever seen it this bad,” she explained.

“There was fighting, people being sick, people fainting – all crammed in like sardines. What should have been an hour from landing to Adeje turned into four hours. What a day!”

Read the full story here.

Paul Doyle LIVE: Liverpool parade suspect in court

Our News team has been working around the clock to cover Liverpool parade crash suspect Paul Doyle’s appearance at Liverpool Magistrates’ Court this morning. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said the 53-year-old is accused of two counts of unlawful and malicious wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and two counts of causing unlawful and malicious grievous bodily harm with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

He is also accused of two counts of attempted unlawful and malicious grievous bodily harm with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and one count of dangerous driving. Doyle shook his head in the dock as the prosecutor told the judge he drove “deliberately at the crowd” and “used his vehicle as a weapon”.

Police previously said 79 people were injured when a car drove into supporters on Water Street at around 6pm on Monday, with seven people still in hospital when Merseyside Police revealed his charges yesterday. Doyle will appear at court again on August 14 for plea and trial preparation hearing.

Read the full story here.

Prince Harry ‘so disappointed’ by Diana sisters’ blunt take on Meghan

There’s never a quiet day for Prince Harry, and it has emerged that the Duke of Sussex “was so disappointed” when he introduced Meghan Markle to Princess Diana’s two sisters, our Royal team reported. Harry had hoped Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Lady Jane Fellowes would have similarities to his mother, who died when Harry was just 12.

However, although Harry believed Diana would have been “over the moon” about his relationship with Meghan, he was upset with her sisters’ reaction. They reportedly did not see the same character traits in the two women and Harry, 40, suffered a further blow as Lady McCorquodale and Lady Fellowes “thought Meghan would not fit in with the Royal Family.”

Regardless, Harry married his partner soon after in 2018 and has gone onto have two children with the former actress. The insights have come about in the book Revenge: Meghan, Harry, and the War Between the Windsors, written by royal biographer Tom Bower. He penned: “Harry assumed that Diana’s family and friends would see a similarity between Diana and his fiancée. Both, he said, shared the same problems. He was so disappointed.”

Read the full story here.

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