In violation of international law, more than 100,000 children are currently being held in migration-related detention in the U.S., the world's high
In violation of international law, more than 100,000 children are currently being held in migration-related detention in the U.S., the world’s highest rate of children in detention, according to the U.N.
Lead author of the U.N. Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty, Manfred Nowak, said the figure refers to migrant children currently in custody who reached a U.S. border unaccompanied, as well as those detained with relatives and minors separated from their parents prior to detention.
“The total number currently detained is 103,000,” Nowak told Agence France-Presse (AFP), calling it a “conservative” assessment, based on the latest available official data as well as “very reliable” additional sources. Globally, at least 330,000 children across 80 countries are being held for migration-related reasons, according to the global study launched Monday, meaning the U.S. accounts for nearly a third of such detentions. Overall, the U.N. study found that more than 7 million children are being held worldwide in a range of facilities and institutions.
The unprecedented surge of migrant families has left U.S. immigration detention centers severely overcrowded and has taxed the government’s ability to provide medical care and offer other vital services. Six children have died since September after being detained by border agents. In July, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said that she was “deeply shocked” by conditions under which migrants and refugees were held at U.S. detention centers, following reports of severe overcrowding and disease-ridden cells.
Immigration has been a central issue for President Donald Trump, who is gearing up to push it in his 2020 re-election campaign. His administration has taken a series of escalating measures to curb access to asylum and limit legal immigration. Many have drawn legal challenges. In September, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed a controversial new rule to take effect, one that could curtail most asylum applications at the border while the court battle over its merits continues.
The drowning of a Salvadoran father and toddler at the U.S. border in June highlighted the ongoing suffering of asylum-seekers making the dangerous journey to the U.S. to flee poverty and conflict. The photo was reminiscent of past failures to address the issue of migration in countries across the globe. Mexican newspapers compared the photograph to the 2015 image of the 3-year-old Syrian boy Alan Kurdi, whose body washed up on a Turkish beach in 2015 while on the asylum journey across the Aegean Sea to Europe. In addition, the volume of people attempting to cross the borders vastly strained resources and prompted an outcry over fetid conditions at border stations where families and children were held for days and weeks at a time in facilities meant to hold them for a maximum of 72 hours.