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United Nations Observer Monitoring Migrant Treatment Calls for Comprehensive Independent Inquiry into What Happened to Jakelin Caal Maquin, a Guatemalan Girl Who Died in the Care of the Seven-Year-Old Wife years. US Government.
Felipe González Morales, UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants, has made an official complaint to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, via officials in Geneva, in which he fires the international alarm bell. Jakelin died on December 8, less than 48 hours after being arrested by the CBP at a remote border crossing in New Mexico.
González calls for an independent and exhaustive investigation into the tragedy, under the direction of judges and lawyers, in which the girl's family is legally represented and has access to a translation into a given language. In order to avoid more deaths, he also calls for the immediate end of the detention of migrant children in the United States and urges the Trump administration to remedy the "failures of the immigration system" to prevent similar situations ".
In an interview with the Guardian, González said that many international bodies human rights defenders had repeatedly warned that children should not be detained because of their migrant status. .
"The detention of children has such an impact that we have warned of risks several times," he said.
The UN observer pointed out that the Trump administration was bound by international laws that it could not escape. 19659003] "When a person, especially a child, is in the custody of a state, that state must secure his rights. States have the obligation to take care of migrants arriving at the border, they can not treat them as animals in inhumane conditions. I am not saying that it happened in this case, but the United States has a duty in that regard. "
The intervention of the main international monitoring body on the human rights of migrants adds to the pressure for the Trump administration to go beyond the routine investigation conducted by the office of the" " Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security The family lawyers of the girl child as well as several members of Congress have described such an internal investigation as totally inadequate form of self-monitoring.
"An incident as serious as the death of this girl should not be left to the administrative authorities. "González told the guardian," I want to make sure that the judges and prosecutors conduct the investigation with complete independence, without any pressure from the authorities. An internal CBP investigation would not be satisfactory. "
The last tragic hours of Jakelin have become a lightning rod to calm concerns over Trump's increasingly radical policies on the southern border. After a perilous journey of more than 2,000 km from her indigenous community in Guatemala, she and her father, Nery Gilberto Caal, arrived at the US border on December 6th.
They were among 163 migrants arrested by CBP officers in Antelope Wells, New Mexico, including 50 unaccompanied children. Jakelin would have been ill while she and her father were being transported on a bus to the Lordsburg Border Patrol Station, from where she was transported by helicopter to a hospital in El Paso, at the Texas. She died in the early hours of December 8
Many essential facts were disputed. According to CBP, the daughter had been properly cared for, providing water and food to her father and doing everything in their power to save Jakelin's life when his illness became known.
His father insisted that 39, no water had been offered to them. He stated that his daughter was in good health when they entered the United States.
González told the Guardian that he wished the investigation to determine whether the Guatemalan family had been placed in "hieleras" detention cells at border patrol posts for years. the migrants complained of being kept in freezing temperatures with only aluminum blankets against the heat.
"There have been numerous complaints about the conditions of detention of migrants in hieleras – these are places that pose a risk to the health of detainees", González
Earlier this week, it was revealed that a five-month-old infant had been hospitalized in North Carolina for pneumonia. Her migrant mother blamed the freezing of conditions of detention at CBP.
On Christmas Eve, the intervention of the United Nations Controller is timely for an administration sensitive to accusations of disloyalty to migrant children. Trump gave up his controversial family separation policy in June, after fierce criticism at home and around the world.
González said that the use of detention of very young children as a deterrent against migration was not only "very problematic", he added. was also a violation of international law.
"You are trespassing on a person's rights in order to preserve public order, which is not reasonable," he said.
He added that he would closely monitor federal authorities have adopted new tactics apparently aimed at dissuading migrants from crossing the United States. CBP appears to be deliberately pursuing its policy of processing asylum applications.
This week it was also announced that in the future, asylum seekers would be sent back to Mexico pending a ruling on their claims .
González lamented that until now, his requests for access to the US border with Mexico had not received the blessing of the Trump administration. The UN observer has formally requested twice for a formal fact finding visit to detention centers and border checkpoints. There was no response from the state department.
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