US and Mexico Child Deportations Drive Extreme Violence and Trauma – UNICEF
The many life-threatening dangers faced by children from Central America who are being deported from the United States of America and Mexico, are highlighted in a new report from United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on 15 August 2018, which also draws attention to the traumatic consequences of family separation by migration authorities.
The trauma suffered by children held in detention by migration authorities, and separated from their families, can have a negative effect on the child’s long-term development, said the agency report.
María Cristina Perceval, UNICEF Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, urged governments to consider the needs of children before deporting them, and to protect and reintegrate them once they return home:
“Millions of children in the region are victims of poverty, indifference, violence, forced migration and the fear of deportation. Being returned to impossible situations makes it more likely that they will migrate again.”
