By Carolina Vásquez Araya on March 28, 2021
Photo: Bill Hackwell
One of the greatest violations of rights against children and young people is perpetrated before the eyes of the world, without provoking the slightest movement for reparation or the urgent search for solutions. For this huge number of children and adolescents fleeing their countries of origin to seek refuge far from home, there is no shelter. Regardless of what motivates this exodus, it has become clear to the international community how the US authorities have turned their gaze out of focus and, under the racist and xenophobic policies of former President Donald Trump, turned border facilities into a Guantánamo-style concentration camp.
Children and adolescents of all ages have been held in these huge warehouses, separated from their parents and without psychological care, as a way of discouraging immigration, sending a harsh message to those who seek to survive in the North. The new administration now faces the monumental task of undoing the anti-immigration legal knots installed by the Donald Trump administration, whose decisions have caused irreparable damage to thousands of Central American families who are only seeking refuge from the criminality unleashed in their countries, perpetrated mainly by the authorities in power.
While children are sacrificed to the corruption and neglect of those who govern their countries of origin – especially Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador – these political leaders have turned a blind eye to the unconscionable violation of the human rights of their youngest population and abandon them to their fate, concentrating on accumulating personal wealth and using public funds to consolidate their networks of influence. They are not alone in this task: they have the unrestricted support of powerful business organizations and the backing of the military, congressmen, judges and magistrates, whose influence in state affairs has corrupted political and judicial bodies to the core.
Before pointing the finger so harshly at the families from which these thousands of children and adolescents are deserting, it is important to take a look at the situation in which these populations live. Deprived of state care, basic services, health security and sources of work due to the offensive and shameless wastefulness of those who are responsible for and decide on public policies in education, health and food, they find themselves trapped in a vicious circle of violence from which it is impossible to escape. To this must be added chronic child malnutrition, whose effect on more than half of all children condemns them to a slow death; and also the constant threat of human and drug trafficking networks, whose unpunished operations are protected by governments.
For the societies of these countries, the situation of street children is not a priority. Concentrating on issues that are much closer to home, such as their own survival, they take a selective view when it comes to children and adolescents from poor backgrounds. This indifference is also a decisive factor in the fate of this large conglomerate, since their problems and deprivations do not have a strong impact on the collective sensibility, and society prefers to focus on issues that concern it directly. This is one of the reasons for the neglect: the lack of influence on state affairs and the unwillingness to fight to recover the integrity of its institutions. In this scenario, children have everything to lose.
Children lack opportunities where their well-being is not a priority.
Source: www.carolinavasquezaraya.com, translation, Resumen – English