Both, asylum seekers and undocumented immigrants are being separated from their families.
The policy is cruel and inhumane. And the UN agrees.
Deep concern had been expressed by the UN human rights office about the 'zero tolerance policy' the Trump Administration has adopted.
Ravina Shamdasani, the spokesperson, announced that the policy has resulted in "people caught entering the country irregularly being subjected to criminal prosecution and having their children—including extremely young children—taken away from them as a result."
Shamdasani spoke of information she had received that even children as young as one-year-old was separated from their parents at the border.
From Geneva, Shamdasani said, "The US should immediately halt this practice...the practice of separating families amounts to arbitrary and unlawful interference in family life, and is a serious violation of the rights of the child."
According to her, "The use of immigration detention and family separation as a deterrent runs counter to human rights standards and principles."
Although, according to Shamdasani, the US has typically taken the rights of children seriously, she noted that the United States is the only country that did not ratify the UN convention of the rights of the child. Regardless of this, international human rights law still applies to the US and the Trump Administration must listen to the UN.
According to the UN refugee agency's William Spindler, "the right to claim asylum is a fundamental human right...and it is also part of the law in the United States."
Shamdasani put it best when she said, "It is...of great concern that in the US, migration control appears to have been prioritized over the effective care and protection of migrant children."
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