CHILDREN ARE OUR FUTURE
Families with children and children alone begin their perilous journeys across international borders, fleeing violence, conflict, disaster, or poverty in the pursuit of a brighter future. These brave souls will often navigate dangerous routes with the assistance of smugglers due to limited legal opportunities. Unfortunately, existing laws, policies, and protective services leave these vulnerable families and children exposed to abuse and exploitation.
Children alone or with their parents migrate to escape the various social hardships in their country of origin. Migration is in some cases, the only option to survival. Overcoming these limited choices could provide benefits not only to those who migrate but also to the societies they leave and the new ones they are attempting to join.
The lengthy duration of these long journeys increase the risks for children, exacerbated by some countries efforts to restrict migration. Border closures and prolonged waits can result in a draining of the financial and psychological resources of both the families and the individual child traveling alone, intensifying their desperation to move forward. Detention, inadequate shelters, and deportation to face dangers they sought to escape contribute to the harm inflicted on these young lives.
Despite global commitment expressed through the “Convention on the Rights of the Child”, which promises equal rights to all children within a country’s borders, some fall short in the protection and management of migration policy. Developing countries, ill-equipped to provide protection, bear the heaviest burden while wealthier nations reinforce borders to prevent arrivals on their shores.
When countries fail to agree on the shared responsibilities for managing migration, children suffer the consequences. Unprotected children face dire long-term developmental outcomes, with violence, abuse, and exploitation compromising their physical and mental health and limiting their future opportunities.
Migrant smuggling organizations will thrive where border enforcement is strict and legal passages are blocked. Families that are eager and desperate to leave are met with government restriction measures and a strong rhetoric that’s often fueled by xenophobia. Complicating the efforts to integrate refugees and migrant people into their new social environment.
Fears regarding cultural shifts, crime and job competition can contribute to intensified debates and will force many children underground, increasing the demand for smugglers. Detention becomes a precursor to deportation, as witnessed in the high percentage of unaccompanied Central American migrant kids being sent back to their countries in 2016.
To address these challenges, intercepted children moving alone should be directed to family or community-based care while their immigration status is resolved. The call to treat all children as our own, resonates as an appeal to “The Spirit of Humanity”, urging citizens to embody benevolence and compassion for the innocent, defining our identity as good humans and Americans.
I wrote this story for “The-Spirit-of-Humanity.org” in 2020 and It remains just as applicable today. Given the current political situation, possibly even more so.