UN Calls For End To Migrant Child Detention Worldwide - Migration Network

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th September, 2019) The United Nations Network on Migration urged nations to stop detaining children based on their parents' immigration status, calling damaging to their physical and psychological health and well-being, according to a press release on Monday.

"Studies consistently show that detention and family separation are traumatic experiences that have a profound negative impact on children's health and long-term cognitive and physical development," the release said. "Children in detention are at risk of suffering depression, anxiety, and psychosomatic problems such as insomnia and nightmares.

Recent reports from around the world consistently and repeatedly illustrate how damaging detention is for children."

The UN urges nations to adapt community-based programs, case management and other human rights-based alternatives that have proven effective as an alternative to detention for children and their families, the release said.

The release made no mention of the United States. However, US policy of separating children from parents who illegally cross the US border - and detaining children in facilities apart from their parents - has made child migrant detentions a global issue.