US authorities must stop migrant child detentions, probe migrant girl's death: UN
The United Nations special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants has called on the administration of US President Donald Trump to stop detaining migrant children.
Felipe González Morales also said Monday that US authorities must conduct a full and independent investigation into the death of Jakelin Caal, a seven-year-old Guatemalan migrant girl who died in US custody.
“Redress to her family should be provided and if any officials are found responsible they should be held accountable,” González Morales, who is a Chilean professor of international law, said in a statement.
“The government should also address failings within the immigration system, and specifically within the US Customs and Border Patrol agency, to prevent similar situations.”
Caal and her father Nery were in a group of more than 160 migrants who handed themselves in to US border agents in the US state of New Mexico on December 6.
Jakelin developed a high fever while in the custody of US Customs and Border Protection and died two days later at a hospital in El Paso, Texas.
Initial news reports said Caal died of dehydration and exhaustion. Later US officials said she had suffered cardiac arrest, brain swelling and liver failure.
“The US authorities must ensure that an in-depth, independent investigation of the death of Jakelin Ameí Caal is conducted,” González Morales added.
The US Department of Homeland Security’s internal watchdog is investigating the girl’s death.
Gonzalez Morales called on the Trump administration to halt the detention of children, unaccompanied or with their families, based on their migratory status, and to seek alternatives.
“As repeatedly stated by a series of UN human rights bodies, detention of children based on their migratory status is a violation of international law,” he said.
Trump has made toughening immigration policies a central tenet of his presidency and has vowed to build a wall along the US-Mexico border to combat illegal immigration and drug trafficking.
Detention is detrimental to a child’s well-being, produces long-term severe adverse impacts and exacerbates the trauma that many suffer along their migration journeys, the UN human rights expert said.
The US authorities’ treatment of migrants and “the public discourse about immigration in the US,” were of great concern, said Gonzalez Morales, who is based in Geneva at the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
His two requests to carry out an official visit to the United States to obtain first-hand information had not received a reply, he said.
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