United Nations Human Rights Chief Blasts US Plans for Child Migrants Al Jazeera
go to original August 1, 2014

Central American migrants await transportation to a U.S. Border Patrol processing center after crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico into the Texas on July 24, near Mission, Texas. (John Moore/Getty Images)

The United Nations' human rights chief expressed concern this week at what she said were plans by the U.S. government to deport tens of thousands of unaccompanied children who entered the United States in recent months.

Navi Pillay, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, urged Washington to protect the child migrants and investigate dozens of reports of abuse against them by U.S. officials.

"I am particularly concerned because the United States appears to be taking steps to deport most of these children back," Pillay told a news briefing in Geneva. "There are almost 100 reports of physical, verbal and sexual abuse by agents towards the children, filed in a complaint by NGOs (non-governmental organizations)."

"The United States does need to urgently investigate all alleged human rights abuses against children and severely sanction perpetrators," the former U.N. war crimes judge said.

Around 57,000 children from Central America were detained at the U.S.-Mexico border after crossing the frontier without their parents in the nine months leading up to June 30.

...Nearly 70 percent of Americans — across political affiliations and religious backgrounds — believe the immigrant children should be treated like refugees, according to the poll by the Public Religion Research Institute.

Read the rest at Al Jazeera

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