Alongside the 30th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Manfred Nowak, leader of the UN Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty released a report detailing the number of migrant kids detained by states across the globe. Almost immediately after the study’s report made news headlines, Nowak was forced to issue a correction, downscaling the number of children detained by the US, but keeping it at the top of the list. 

Numbers Game 

Nowak’s initial count placed the number of children at over 100,000. He cited a UN refugee agency report which used data from 2015 during the administration of former US President Barack Obama. That number contrasted heavily alongside a US Health and Human Services figure of 69,550 for 2019. Furthermore, Nowak admitted the number did not reference the number of children held simultaneously, but rather cumulatively. Therefore it would be inaccurate to say those children are currently detained at the same time. 

“I used the UNHCR data because it was the last UNHCR figure that was published, and that goes back to the year 2015,” Nowak said. “And I haven’t checked it that clearly in the press conference. So that was, of course, misleading.”

Still, when stacked against data from other countries, the US figure is alarmingly high. In 2013, Australia kept 2,000 children. Canada detained 155 in 2018 and the United Kingdom revealed that only 42 were sent to shelters in 2017. 

With 60 of every 100,000 children detained, the US leads developing states such as Bolivia, Botswana, and Sri Lanka. Mexico also falls behind the US with only a fraction of children detained – 18,000 in immigrant detention facilities and 7,000 in prison. 

Notably, these children are separated from their families. 

“Of course separating children, as was done by the Trump administration, from their parents and even small children at the Mexican-US border is prohibited by the Convention on the Rights of the Child. I would call it inhumane treatment for both the parents and the children,” Nowak remarked. 

Article 9 of the convention reads, “States Parties shall ensure that a child shall not be separated from his or her parents against their will, except when competent authorities subject to judicial review determine, under applicable law and procedures, that such separation is necessary for the best interests of the child.”

Subpar Conditions

In the US and Mexico, a majority of the separation cases are centred around alleged illegal immigration. Often the child’s family is with them as they attempt to enter the US or Mexico. HHS commented that although the total for 2019 “has jumped dramatically” since 2012, the average detention period has fallen to 57 days from 93 in November 2018. 

“The way they were separating infants from families only to deter irregular migration from Central America to the United States to me constitutes inhuman treatment, and that is prohibited by the two treaties,” said Nowak.

In the Middle East, 29,000 youth are detained in Syria and Iraq due to connections with the ISIS terror group. French citizens comprise the largest segment of foreigners among them, Nowak said. 

Separating children from their families and detaining them is only the beginning of the problem highlighted by the convention’s report. Treatment of minors has been a contentious debate. The US Congress appropriated $4.6 billion for the Border Patrol to relocate children from border facilities into more age-appropriate shelters, but evidence suggests that has done little to improve conditions. 

Food is a common issue, according to a New York Times report. In two instances, children were told to eat food from off the floor. Additionally, food is often spoiled. Detention facilities are commonly overcrowded, wash facilities are subpar, and children are found sleeping on floors due to lack of beds and blankets. Furthermore, US law requires children to receive proper medical and mental healthcare, but the HHS Office of the Inspector General determined there is a lack of clinicians. 

Mental Effect

The long-term effects of child separation and mistreatment is damning. Jack Shonkoff, director of Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child, explained to Congress the mental aspect of separation.

“Stable and responsive relationships promote healthy brain architecture,” Shonkoff said. “If these relationships are disrupted, young children are hit by the double whammy of a brain that is deprived of the positive stimulation it needs, and assaulted by a stress response that disrupts its developing circuitry.”

Although the practice of detaining youth is not new from the Trump administration, poor treatment and living conditions are likely to have a lifelong effect. The number of detained kids in the US is higher due to its border with Mexico and the influx of immigrants, but that does not justify violating international treaties the US ratified. At the minimum, the Border Patrol should strive to improve conditions and expedite family reunification. 

L'articolo United States Detains Most Migrant Children in the World proviene da InsideOver.

Rwanda, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNCHR) and the African Union have agreed to evacuate refugees and asylum seekers in Libya. The Memorandum of Understanding was signed last week, in the capital city, Addis Ababa, to set up a transit mechanism for evacuating refugees out of Libya. The UNCHR reported that refugees and asylum seekers will be transferred to Rwanda voluntarily.

Rwanda’s policy, like Uganda’s, allows refugees the right to work, with an aim of “progressively integrating refugees into national systems for health and education”. In 2017, Rwanda hosted about 172,000 refugees, many from recently war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo and politically unstable Burundi.

Despite its horrific past with the Rwandan genocide, the nation has been developing at a very fast pace in recent years. Under President Paul Kagame, the nation has curtailed corruption, revived the economy and maintained political stability. It is one of the cleanest places on earth. It also holds the title for the world’s number one country for women in power. Nevertheless, like Uganda, the country’s humanitarian stance is blighted by an ever-increasingly authoritarian government under President Kagame, who has been accused of human rights violations.

In a statement released last week, the UNCHR said: “The first group of 500 people, predominantly from the Horn of Africa, will be evacuated, including children and youth at risk. After their arrival, UNHCR will continue to pursue solutions for the evacuees.

“Evacuation flights are expected to begin in the coming weeks, and will be carried out in co-operation with Rwandan and Libyan authorities.”

The plight of refugees and asylum seekers will be decided once they arrive in the country. Some refugees will be resettled in third countries while others will be assisted with moving to countries in which they were previously offered asylum. Refugees who can safely return to their home countries will also be assisted with their return, while some will be permitted to remain in Rwanda. The conditions to be met for granting asylum in Rwanda to Libyan refugees is, at yet, unascertained.

Since 2017, the UNCHR has evacuated more than 4,400 refugees and asylum-seekers out of Libya. The Northern African country currently has 5,600 refugees arbitrarily detained in refugee camps. There are also about 800,000 migrants and 50,000 registered refugees and asylum seekers in the country. Refugees in Libya have spoken of the inhumane conditions in which they are held, including a recent airstrike on the Tajoura Detention Centre where 50 refugees and migrants were killed, and another 130 wounded. The UN claimed that both sides of the ongoing Libyan conflict knew the location of the detention centre.

Following the July airstrikes, António Vitorino, Director General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, appealed to the European Union and the African Union to “consider the protection of the human rights of migrants and refugees a core element of its engagement in Libya.”

They asked for countries in the international community to provide more evacuation and resettlement places, and extra resources, to guarantee the safety of refugees and migrants in Libya.

The evacuation of Libyan migrants to Rwanda is another political and humanitarian step towards Pan Africanism. Libya’s ongoing conflict and anti-migrant policies does not protect its refugees and asylum seekers as it should. African nations with better refugee policies, such as Rwanda and Uganda, can better protect refugees, and enable them to integrate into a new African society.

Humanitarian refugee-integration policies enables Africa to take care of its refugees, without returning to the tradition of seeking help from the West. Refugees, permitted to use the resources of their host country, can go on to enrich their host country which in turn enriches Africa. While there are many obstacles to reaching Pan Africanism, such as corruption, international debts, terrorism and conflict, continued intra-continental humanitarian support is one battle won.

L'articolo Refugees in Libyan Detention Centres Evacuated to Rwanda proviene da InsideOver.