United States has requested help from emergency agency to deal with rising number of migrant children

The government of The United States on Saturday ordered the FEMA emergency agency to come to the aid of the growing number of migrant children crossing the border with Mexico, before the saturation of care structures.

EHomeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has called on the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to support efforts to temporarily house thousands of children who have crossed the southern border alone, amid criticism that authorities detained them for long periods in overcrowded facilities.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) currently cares for around 8,800 migrant children and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) hundreds more. Although there are new arrivals every day.

Only in February, CBP detained 9,457 unaccompanied migrant children at the southern border. Its facilities are overcrowded and the authorities are doubly confronted with the restrictions linked to covid-19.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that FEMA will be part of a 90-day effort to ensure children are safely housed and handed over to caregivers, usually parents already living in the United States.

“The federal government is responding to the arrival of record numbers of people, including unaccompanied children, at the southwest border.”said the department.

“Since April 2020, the number of border meetings has increased due to persistent violence, natural disasters, food insecurity and poverty in the countries of the North Triangle of Central America”.

President Joe Biden’s administration faces increasing pressure from migrants, apparently encouraged to try to enter the United States by the new president’s rejection of the “zero tolerance” policy of his predecessor Donald Trump towards undocumented migrants.

While adult migrants and their families continue to be returned to Mexico when captured, unaccompanied children are being assisted to relocate with American parents.

“Our goal is to ensure that unaccompanied children are transferred to HHS as quickly as possible, in accordance with legal requirements and in their best interests,” Mayorkas said in a statement.

(With information from AFP)

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