SAN DIEGO (CNN) – Federal authorities arrested six protesters outside the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s San Diego sector headquarters in Chula Vista, Calif., according to an official statement by CBP,
Doctors for Camp Closure says physicians and others were protesting after CBP denied their request to give flu vaccines to detained migrants.
About 70 people started protesting Monday. On Wednesday several protesters could be seen blocking both driveways of the facility by lying down.
They were spreading the message that basic healthcare and hygiene is a human right.
“People die of the flu, but the people who have died of the flu in CBP custody, it was completely preventable,” said Dr. Julie Sierra. “And keeping people in hygienic conditions, and not overcrowding them and giving them soap and access to showers, that can help prevent illness, but nothing prevents the flu like a flu vaccine.”
The doctors at the protest were not allow to give flu shots to those inside the camp.
At least three children in U.S. immigration custody died from flu infections during the 2018 flu season.
According to the release from doctors for camp closure, that’s nine times the mortality rate of the general pediatric population.
