In observance of the thirtieth meeting of the Coordination Table on Migration and Gender, the report on “Childhood and Migration in Central and North America—Causes, Policies, Practices, and Challenges” was presented with the participation of Mesoamerican Voices, the Fray Matías de Córdova Center for Human Rights, the Pop No’j Association, and the organization Children in Need of Defense (KIND). This study was directed by the Center for Studies on Gender and Refugees at the Law School of University of California Hastings and the Progam on Migration and Asylum from the Center for Justice and Human Rights from the National University of Lanús (Argentina), and it involved the participation of civil organizations from the U.S., Mexico, and Central America, including Mesoamerican Voices and the Fray Matías de Córdova Center for Human Rights.
The document is the result of a regional investigation of two years in length regarding the treatment of Honduran, Salvadorean, Guatemalan, and Mexican children, as well as citizens and permanent residents of the U.S. who have been affected by migration, and it exmaines the structural causes that force children to migrate through the Central America-Mexico-U.S. Corridor. Furthermore, an evaluation is made of the policies, practices, and the conditions in countries of origin, transit, and arrival, and it investigates the effects on children from throughout the region, particularly with respect to the violation of children’s rights as well as the corresponding regional and bilateral accords, resulting in a series of recommendations for the governments of the countries in question.
In the presentation, it was recalled that “a year ago, the humanitarian crisis experienced by migrant children and adolescents worsened, leading 56,000 children to be arrested at the U.S.-Mexico border between October 2013 and July 2014. Of equal importance is to be aware that on 7 July, a year passed since the implementation of the Southern Border Program, which represents the strategy of externalizing the borders of the U.S. State to control migratory flows from Central and South America, leaving Mexico to function as police against migrants in transit.”
For more information (in Spanish):
Niñez y migración en América Central y América del Norte: Causas, políticas, prácticas y desafíos (febrero de 2015)
For more information from SIPAZ (in English):
National/international: The IACHR expresses concern before hardening of Mexican authorities toward migrants (30 June 2015)
Mexico/National: Honduran migrant dies of drowning in presence of migration agents, says La 72 (March 22, 2015)
Chiapas/National: Bishops of southern Mexico pronounce themselves on the “drama of migration”(February 8, 2015)
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