AFP/Reuters/Geneva
UN human rights chief Navi Pillay has raised the alarm over Washington’s plans to scale up the deportation of illegal child migrants from Central America.
“There are almost 57,000 unaccompanied children in the United States. I’m particularly concerned because the United States appears to be taking steps to deport most of these children,” she told reporters.
The arrival of huge numbers of unaccompanied children has overwhelmed US authorities lacking the financial and legal means to curb the illegal influx.
President Barack Obama has insisted new arrivals will be sent home, and US lawmakers introduced a plan earlier this month to speed up repatriation.
Washington has declared the influx a humanitarian crisis.
Most of the children come from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras where youths are fleeing poverty and gang violence.
Pillay said that victims should be offered a haven and cared for.
“Deportation should only take place if their protection is guaranteed at the places they are being sent to,” she said. “The real causes of the crisis, in the countries of origin and destination, need to be tackled. Criminal trafficking networks have to be dismantled and punished. It’s the traffickers, after all, not the victims or their families, that must be punished.”
If minors are alone and do not hail from neighbouring Mexico or Canada, US authorities are required to provide them shelter and move them within 72 hours to housing where they can then receive medical care and legal aid services.
They spend 34 days on average in such housing before being released, in 85% of the cases to a relative already present in the United States.
They are then ordered to appear in immigration courts where their cases are heard.
But earlier this month about 2,000 children were still in detention centres operated by border patrol agents beyond the 72-hour limit.
“I recognise that there’s a complicated political situation,” said Pillay. “But I state categorically that detention of migrants for immigration purposes should be a last resort option. It should be proportionate and only permissible for the shortest period of time.”
“Detention of children constitutes a violation of their rights because it contravenes the principle of the best interests of the child.”
US officials told senators earlier this month that authorities are spending $250 to $1,000 per child per day for housing and care.
“There are almost 100 reports of physical, verbal and sexual abuse by agents towards the children, filed in a complaint by NGOs (non-governmental organisations),” Pillay said.
“The United States does need to urgently investigate all alleged human rights abuses against children and severely sanction perpetrators,” the former UN war crimes judge said.
Obama’s drive to tackle the migrant crisis with $3.7bn in emergency funds has hit trouble because the deeply divided Congress leaves on a month-long recess at the end of the work week.
John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Republican in the US Senate, had said on Sunday that he expected the House of Representatives to pass a “skinnied-down” emergency funding bill this week to deal with the crisis.
Pillay: I recognise that there’s a complicated political situation (in the US). But ... detention of migrants for immigration purposes should be a las
