Amnesty International urges the Philippine authorities to act now to release prisoners, after outbreaks of COVID-19 cases at two detention facilities in Metro Manila. The outbreaks follow multiple earlier warnings that an eruption of COVID-19 in the country’s jails or prisons could be disastrous, due to dangerously high overcrowding and inadequate access to basic services such as food, water, hygiene and healthcare. The authorities must urgently safeguard the health of detainees amid the COVID-19 pandemic, when Philippine jails and prisons could easily become hotspots for infection.
