SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - Honduras called on Monday for the United States to stop separating immigrant children from their parents at the U.S. border, while El Salvador warned that the policy puts children’s health at risk and could cause psychosocial scars.
El Salvador’s foreign ministry said in a statement that the Trump administration’s hardline policy of separating immigrant parents and children violated human rights and “strongly urged” for an end to the practice.
“These provisions are mainly affecting migrant children and adolescents ... exposing them to extremely adverse conditions, which will surely have consequences in their physical health and long-term psychosocial development,” the statement said.
The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has responded to an increase in immigration from Central America with a “zero tolerance” migration policy that provides for the arrest of all adults caught trying to enter the United States illegally, including those seeking asylum.
Images of children and youths sitting in concrete-floored cages in U.S. detention centers have fanned outrage over the policy. Trump administration officials have defended the policy as a way to secure the border and deter illegal immigrants.
Official figures indicate that from mid-April to May, U.S. authorities have divided more than 2,000 children from their families. Many are from Central America, where immigrants are fleeing poverty and widespread gang violence.
El Salvador insisted parents had the right to know where their children were and asked that consular officials be “speedily” notified of where the children have been taken.
Immigrant children, many of whom have been separated from their parents under a new "zero tolerance" policy by the Trump administration, are shown walking in single file between tents in their compound next to the Mexican border in Tornillo, Texas, U.S. June 18, 2018. REUTERS/Mike Blak
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