FARMVILLE, VIRGINIA — Aliaksei Shcharbachenia, a 35-year-old asylum-seeker from Belarus, has been detained at the Farmville Detention Center in Virginia for nearly a year. He reported losing feeling in the fingers on his right hand and has a tumor on his arm that he describes as the size of an egg.

Shcharbachenia requested to see a medical specialist in December. He stated that as of last week he had not seen a specialist nor received a diagnosis. "It hurts when you touch it," Shcharbachenia said. He stated he was seen by an onsite doctor about his arm in February, who only measured the growth and did not provide treatment. Shcharbachenia submitted an internal oversight complaint to the Department of Homeland Security regarding his medical care and an attempted deportation.

Shcharbachenia was placed in solitary confinement in May after sharing information with new detainees. He stated he was confined for two weeks and was only let out of his cell with his legs and arms bound by chains. Immigration agents picked up Shcharbachenia at a truck stop in Virginia in August 2025.

Shcharbachenia stated that CoreCivic staff denied him access to a translator and assistance in filing his asylum claim. He received documents related to his claims but said he was unable to act on them without a translator. "I want people to know what really happens inside here," Shcharbachenia said. He also described the facility's ventilation system as dirty, stated it is often freezing inside, and said the water is undrinkable.

Sophia Gregg, a senior immigrants' rights attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, stated, "And so with that being the goal of the administration to deport people as quickly as possible, they have no incentive in creating conditions that are humane." Gregg also said, "What we expect is that the mass infusion of cash will only put online more detention facilities that are going to be run as private businesses, and offer the bare minimum at the cost of human life and human suffering." Brian Todd, a spokesperson for CoreCivic, denied allegations of retaliatory treatment against Shcharbachenia and stated that CoreCivic uses restrictive housing and not solitary confinement.

The Farmville Detention Center opened in 2010. Immigration Centers of America were the initial owners. In 2015, a guard at the facility pepper-sprayed a detainee who was in full restraints, according to ICE records; the company stated the use of force was justified. CoreCivic purchased the facility for $67 million in 2025. "Things since [the facility] moved to CoreCivic have only gotten worse," Gregg said.