Geneva, April 22, 2021 (ARGOS) – On the basis of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which establishes as an obligation of the States that have signed it the respect and guarantee of the right to personal freedom and integrity, the International Observatory on Migration and Human Rights ARGOS urges the implementation of protection measures for the child migrant population at the southern border of the United States.

In the last quarter, according to The New York Times, the number of unaccompanied migrant children detained along the southern border has multiplied, filling federal detention centers, similar to prisons, where they are exposed to disease, hunger and overcrowding.

“We consider the arbitrary detentions and inhumane treatment of Central American migrant children at the southern border of the United States this year to be a serious and urgent matter,” said Maria Hernandez, director of ARGOS.

The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden reopened last February a detention center for child migrants who arrive at the border with Mexico unaccompanied by a family member.

The U.S. Border Patrol keeps in its custody hundreds of children who crossed the border crossing alone; many of those in a detention center under the control of Customs and Border Protection say they have barely seen “heaven”.

The director of ARGOS explains that this situation violates the right to personal freedom and integrity of migrant children, and therefore urges the cessation of any action or omission by officials that entails discriminatory and xenophobic practices and, in particular, those that imply the rejection of unaccompanied child migrants, due to their origin or nationality.

The number of migrant children in Mexico rises in 2021

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported this March 20 an exponential increase in the number of child migration in Mexico since the beginning of 2021, from 380 to almost 3,500 in one quarter.

“These children arrive after dangerous journeys of up to two months, alone, exhausted and afraid. At every step they run the risk of becoming victims of violence and exploitation, recruitment by gangs and trafficking, which has tripled in the last 15 years,” denounced UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore, during a briefing on the humanitarian situation in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

Mexico, according to the UN, has become a country of origin, transit and return for this migrant population that comes mostly from the countries of the Northern Triangle of Central America.