What's Mexico Doing with All Those Central American Migrant Kids It Detains? The Associated Press
go to original April 2, 2016

Mexico accused of abandoning migrant children, Anelise Borges reports (TRT World)

Mexico does not comply with its own laws in how it handles unaccompanied child migrants who arrive in the country fleeing violence in Central America, a Human Rights Watch report said this week.

Since the United States pressured Mexico to step up detentions of migrants in recent years to reduce a surge reaching the U.S. border, the number of children detained in Mexico has risen dramatically.

Last year, Mexican authorities apprehended nearly 36,000 children, more than half of whom were unaccompanied. It detained 9,600 children in 2013.

In interviews with 61 child migrants, Human Rights Watch researchers were told by only one that officials had informed him of his right to seek refugee recognition, as is required by Mexican law.

Children were not properly screened for possible refugee claims, the report said. On the contrary, it said, the children described immigration officials who warned them of long stays in detention if they applied for asylum.

And even if they did want to apply there was no legal assistance to help them navigate the process.

Read the rest at El Daily Post

Related: Central Americans Rerouted: A U.S. Immigration Crisis Gets Outsourced (TakePart)

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