Children in migrant caravan. Photo: Darinel Zacarías
Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) expressed to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) the lack of protection and attention to child and adolescent migrants and warns that this year the number of detentions of migrant children will set a record.
In general, the National Migration Institute (INM) reported that from January to August 2019, 97,537 people have requested immigration procedures. Of that total, the largest percentage is from Guatemala, followed by Honduras, El Salvador, Cuba and Nicaragua.
The authorities contemplate Chiapas as the principal entrance for migrants to the country; given this, Edgar Corzo Sosa, Fifth Visitor General of the CNDH, explained to the maximum authority about the issue that it’s necessary to exhort the governments of Mexico, the United States and the Central American countries to adopt actions so that the dignity and superior interest of childhood and adolescence prevail in the context of migration.
Given that, Corzo Sosa warned that this year would be the one that has detained the greatest number of girls, boys and adolescents. Since last July childhood events reached 38,581, which represented an increase of 21% with respect to the previous year, emphasizing that 8,744 were unaccompanied minors, and thus it is estimated that the number will exceed the number of detentions in the last five years.
Corzo Sosa indicated that as regards the child migrant that passes through Mexico, it is appreciated with concern that the practice of admitting and maintaining the girls, boys and adolescents continues, both accompanied and unaccompanied, in migrant enclosures, while being necessary to give priority to alternatives, under the consideration that detention should always be the last resort to consider.
Additionally, the National Commission stated its concern about the continuing practice of admitting and maintaining unaccompanied underage minors in migratory stations, which has been observed in the verification visits that are made on a daily basis to the migratory enclosures, in spite of the recommendations and precautionary measures that those places are not adequate for child migrants to stay in-
“They go against the legal norms for the protection of childhood and from a human rights perspective there is no justification for that vulnerable group to remain detained because of lacking documents to travel in the country” the Fifth Visitor said.
Similarly, he proposed that there be a pronouncement between the Universal and Inter-American Human Rights Systems on migrant children, in which the Rapporteurs for Migrants and the Committee on Migratory Workers, of both the UN and the IACHR participate, and that can expand to other international organisms. He also expressed the approval of the CNDH for the initiative to establish a regional or transnational Mechanism that supervises and supports the elaboration of public policies on migrant children in the region.
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Originally Published in Spanish by Chiapas Paralelo
Tuesday, October 1, 2019
Re-Published with English interpretation by the Chiapas Support Committee
Chiapas Support Committee 