AZMEX POLICY / I3 16 AUG 2018
Comments: Irregular / informal = illegal.
Also, some doubts about some of the medical/ psychological opinions in the article.
Your correspondent's ( not a medical professional) travels through the region over the years,
has the opinion that the people there are significantly more resilient than than their neighbors to the north.
But then they have to be.
"usually have difficulties to return to their places of origin." Sad, but true.
Thx
Mexico also separates migrant children from their families
yaritza ayon
08/16/2018
Nuevo Dia - Nogales, Son.
http://nuevodia.com.mx/2018/08/16/mexico-tambien-separa-a-ninos-migrantes-de-sus-familias/
Mexico City .- Almost 60 thousand migrant children were held in detention centers in Mexico before being deported to their countries of origin, reported UNICEF, this occurred between 2016 and 2017.
Of that number of children, children aged 12 and older were kept in a separate area, even if they were accompanied by their families, while children under 12 stayed with their mothers, a procedure normally followed by the National Migration Institute ( INM), alerted the international organization.
Children in these detention centers are not allowed to leave to make use of services or for leisure purposes, even in cases in which the process of determining their status as migrants or refugees is long.
In his report "Uprooted in Central America and Mexico. Migrant and refugee children face a vicious circle of adversity and danger, "reported Thursday that some 96,000 people - including 24,000 women and children, were returned to their places of origin from Mexico and the United States between January and December. April of this year.
In that same period, 9,995 children and adolescents from the Northern Triangle of Central America have been arrested.
Only on the border between Mexico and the United States, at least 286,290 migrants were intercepted from October 2017 to June 2018; of them, 37,450 were unaccompanied children and 68,560 were family units, that is, parents, mothers or relatives with minors.
"There are many doubts about how the immigration authorities take the decision to repatriate them and whether those decisions are in the best interests of migrants, especially children. In any case, once the decision is made, it is evident that it is more complex to reintegrate migrants safely into their communities than the mere fact of sending them home, "the report emphasized.
The concern of the organization regarding the way in which these minors are retained and deported has to do with the reasons that make them emigrate and uproot themselves from their places of origin: poverty, endemic violence and serious events such as civil conflicts, hurricanes , earthquakes, crop diseases and other crises.
This has led to more and more children being exposed to the dangers and stress of illegal migration, the report says.
"That families are aware of the dangers of travel and, even so, decide to do so is a proof of the seriousness of the structural causes of irregular migration from that region," the report explains.
And he adds that, as an example, the increasing violence and severe drought that occurred in northern Central America in 2014 generated an increase in the number of unaccompanied migrant children who crossed into the United States along the Mexican border.
A total of 68,541 unaccompanied minors were intercepted at the border between October 1, 2013 and September 30, 2014, compared to 38,759 from the previous 12 months. More than 68 thousand 400 family units (that is, parents and children) were intercepted in the same period. "
The problem is that the increase in the interception and detention of migrant children in Campeche, Chiapas, Quintana Roo and Tabasco, thanks to the implementation of the Southern Border Program, has not been accompanied by good management by the agencies in charge, indicates the report.
"Detention and family separation are traumatic experiences that can leave children exposed to exploitation and abuse, as well as causing toxic stress. Multiple studies have shown that stress alters the development of the child in the long term, even long after the experience that caused it is over, "he says.
Pia Rebello Britto, Head of Child Development in Early Childhood Unicef cited in the report, states that "continued exposure to traumatic situations (such as child detention and family separation) may result in the prolonged release of cortisol, the hormone of stress, which damages brain functionality. "
"Adverse experiences that extend over time can seriously undermine the brain development of children," says Luis Zayas, professor of psychiatry at Dell Medical School, Austin, Texas. "Executive functions, problem solving and social skills can be altered." In his opinion, situations of intense stress can also lead to the onset of a serious mental illness.
The hardening of the application of migration regulations has made it increasingly dangerous to cross southern Mexico, highlights the UNICEF report. As a result, many Central American migrants turn to coyotes (human traffickers) or choose informal routes such as forests or mountain passes, exposing them to a greater risk of being victims of exploitation, abuse, attacks and extortion.
"The dangers of crossing from the countries of northern Central America to Mexico and the United States are well documented (...) Unaccompanied children and women are the ones who take the most risks. Unprotected and often alone, they become easy prey for smugglers, criminals, organized gangs, security forces and other individuals or groups that abuse, exploit and even kill them. Irregular migrants are also very exposed to the danger of being intercepted and detained during the trip, and many children who migrate from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras have been separated from their parents or guardians along the way. "
The trip can cost three thousand 500 dollars per person with a coyote, or 15 thousand dollars if the coyote takes an unaccompanied child. Poor migrant families are often forced to finance their trip by selling the few belongings or properties they have or asking for substantial loans. If they are deported they will try to migrate despite the adversities and the dangers of the trip.
That is why some coyotes already offer rates that cover up to three attempts to reach the United States. "Unless a larger effort is made to address the structural causes of migration, people will continue to leave," says Nadine Perrault, UNICEF representative in El Salvador.
Once repatriated, migrants are often faced with large debts and are unable to regain the money they spent on the trip. When they return they have nothing and must face situations of extreme violence or serious events that made them flee in the first place.
This is compounded by the stigmatization suffered by adults in their communities, where they are rejected when seeking employment "for having failed in the attempts to reach the United States to stay," explains Alex Alvarado, a psychologist who works with migrants repatriated to Honduras. in the report.
This stigma extends to children, adolescents and in particular girls who have been returned to their communities of origin. Nadine Perrault identifies a form of "especially insidious" stigma: in some communities, people think that the girls who have returned have been victims of sexual violence during their trip to the United States and that, in some way, they are "tainted".
For his part, Dr. Zayas pointed out that children who have spent their formative years in the United States usually have difficulties to return to their places of origin.
END
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