Countries must protect people in detention from the COVID-19 pandemic by releasing vulnerable prisoners, the UN’s rights chief said on Wednesday.
“Covid-19 has begun to strike prisons, jails andimmigration detention centres, as well as residential care homes andpsychiatric hospitals, and risks rampaging through such institutions’ extremelyvulnerable populations,” Michelle Bachelet said in a statement.”Authoritiesshould examine ways to release those particularly vulnerable to COVID-19, amongthem older detainees and those who are sick, as well as low-riskoffenders.”