Report by Human Rights Watch.
March 26, 2021.
Unsanitary Conditions in Formosa; Isolation, Quarantine Centers; Free Speech Restrictions. Authorities in Argentina’s northern province of Formosa have employed often abusive and unsanitary measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, Human Rights Watch and the Johns Hopkins University’s centers for Public Health and Human Rights and for Humanitarian Health said today. Provincial authorities have also limited journalists’ ability to cover the situation in Formosa, allegedly used excessive force against those protesting the COVID-19 measures, and, for months, severely restricted the ability of people from the city of Clorinda to leave their city and get health care.
Between January and March 2021, Human Rights Watch interviewed 45 people in Formosa by phone, including 30 who were in isolation or quarantine centers, as well as doctors, lawyers, victims of police abuse, journalists, a legislator, and two councilwomen. Most fear reprisals in Formosa and spoke on condition that their names and other identifying information would be withheld. Some said they were government employees and feared they would lose their jobs. This publication is also based on official information provided by the Formosa provincial government and the national Human Rights Secretary’s Office.
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