Dangerous Countries, Immigrant Children

The issue of immigrant children remains on the horizon. According to Rosa María Ortiz, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights rapporteur on the Rights of the Child, there is an alarming rise in immigrant children in Mexico.

Only in 2013, 24,000 children who were traveling on their own were arrested in the United States. Most of them came from Central American, countries such as El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. None of them arrived by sea or crossed the Canada border. Mexico was the channel, and to this effect, it is this country’s responsibility to block trafficked children, find them once they have arrived, and provide them with a place to stay.

By the beginning of the year, the American authorities themselves had calculated that the number of immigrant children could reach 90,000 if the migration trend remained the same as in previous months. By 2015, the number could rise up to 142,000.

The unforeseen consequences of child immigration are a reason Mexico has to act. The majority of Central American children deported from the United States may end up trying to stay in this country — it could be their only alternative — which would turn them into a possible focus of a humanitarian crisis on national land.

Moreover, this is an opportunity for Mexico to show that the entry of illegal foreigners can be controlled without militarizing borders or criminalizing migrant workers.

Once the system of identification, rescue and deportation of minors is polished, governments have to make the most of this approach to go one step further: dealing with the cause of immigration. How do we get children away from roads and railways? Just with social and economic development in their own communities, which includes job, leisure and educational alternatives.

Above all, the protection of families is needed to face the gangs and cartels that harass them. Children did not travel alone from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras just because of a materialistic ambition. It was because they were running away from the living conditions in their place of origin.

Mexico has a double challenge. It has to provide its own citizens with security in order to avoid the expulsion of children, and at the same time, it has to control its borders, so that not just anyone could be able to traffic with children going undetected.

Regional cooperation has started in matters of detection. It has to reach the economic and social fields. It is advisable for Mexico and the United States. Having less children on the borders would be a clear example of a safer country.