U.S. Mistreats Immigrant Children, Amnesty Says

["M.V.M. \( in UOL \)" <mvmeireles at uol.com.br>]

U.S. Mistreats Immigrant Children, Amnesty Says
<http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=2951902>http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=2951902

Wed June 18, 2003 05:02 PM ET
By Jane Sutton
MIAMI (Reuters) - The United States locks up more than 5,000 children a
year who enter the country illegally and alone, often holding them in harsh
conditions without access to lawyers, rights group Amnesty International
said on Wednesday.
Some are jailed with criminals, strip-searched, shackled and physically
abused, in violation of international accords and of a 1985 U.S. court
ruling that children in immigration custody must be treated with "dignity,
respect and special concern for their vulnerability as minors," Amnesty
said in a report released in Miami and other cities.
Some have been sent by their parents to join relatives in the United
States. Others are fleeing abuse, war and recruitment in rebel armies,
Amnesty said.
"They come to this country seeking freedom only to find themselves instead
facing abuse, detention and neglect on the part of U.S. authorities," said
Ajamu Baraka, Amnesty's regional director for the southeastern United
States.
"You are forced to appear before a judge to argue your case by yourself,
often in a language you don't understand."
U.S. immigration authorities had no immediate comment.
Amnesty said children from all over the world, from toddlers to teens, are
held for months and sometimes years while U.S. authorities decide whether
to grant them political asylum or humanitarian resettlement.
EXTENSIVE INTERVIEWS
Amnesty's report was based on interviews with detained children and lawyers
who work with them, and on surveys sent to 115 U.S. facilities that hold
illegal immigrant children.
Among the 33 facilities that answered the survey fully, 48 percent said
they held unaccompanied minors in the same cells as juvenile offenders and
more than half said they used solitary confinement as punishment.
Eighty-three percent said they put the children in handcuffs, shackles,
belly chains or other restraints when taking them to court or other places
outside the facility.
Fewer than half of such children have contact with lawyers and there is no
system to provide them with adult guardians to speak for them in court,
Amnesty said.
The report cited examples of treatment it called cruel and degrading:
Children at a Pennsylvania facility were kicked and thrown to the floor for
infractions such as saying "Can I use the bathroom?" instead of "May I use
the bathroom?" it said.
Staff at a Texas facility took away blankets and mattresses and turned up
the air conditioning to make it "unbearably cold" when children misbehaved,
the report said.
The report cited one cause for optimism. Responsibility for unaccompanied
immigrant children was transferred on March 1 to the newly created U.S.
Office of Refugee Resettlement, and legislation pending in Congress would
require that they be given legal guardians and access to translators.
Previously, they were in custody of the same immigration agency that was
charged with prosecuting them for deportation.
Jimmy Noel was one of the lucky ones. He was 16 when he arrived illegally
in October with a boat full of Haitian emigres, hoping to join his family
in Miami. He was held under armed guard in a hotel room for two weeks.
"My family didn't know where I was ... I didn't get a chance to change
clothes. At the hotel there was no staff who spoke Creole who could help
me," he told Reuters on Wednesday through a translator.
He was held for two months more at a Boys Town facility in Miami, then
released to his sister's custody on Christmas Eve after a baffling series
of hearings.
"I was really scared because I did not know what was going to happen to
me," he said.


Anistia acusa os EUA de maltratarem crian?as imigrantes

18/06/03
17:33
Por Jane Sutton

MIAMI (Reuters) - Os Estados Unidos det?m por ano, –s vezes sob condi?ðes
desumanas e sem aux'lio jur'dico, mais de 5.000 crian?as que tentam entrar
no pa's sozinhas e sem vistos, disse na quarta-feira a organiza?Ðo Anistia
Internacional.
Algumas dessas crian?as sÐo encarceradas como criminosas. Obrigadas a se
despir, elas sÐo algemadas e submetidas a abusos f'sicos, o que viola uma
decisÐo judicial de 1985 que garante –s crian?as sob cust-dia do
Departamento de Imigra?Ðo um tratamento "digno, com respeito e especial
preocupa?Ðo a suas vulnerabilidades", disse a Anistia em um relat-rio
divulgado em Miami e outras cidades.
Em alguns casos, essas crian?as sÐo enviadas por seus pais para se juntar a
parentes que jý estÐo nos EUA. Outras fogem de abusos, guerras e
recrutamento por guerrilhas, de acordo com a Anistia. "Elas v?m a este pa's
em busca de liberdade, mas em vez disso enfrentam abusos, prisðes e
neglig?ncia por parte das autoridades", disse Ajamu Baraka, diretor
regional da Anistia no sudoeste dos EUA.
"Elas sÐo obrigadas a comparecer ante um juiz para se defender, muitas
vezes em uma l'ngua que nÐo entendem", afirmou Baraka.
O Departamento de Imigra?Ðo nÐo quis se manifestar sobre o relat-rio, feito
a partir de entrevistas com crian?as e advogados e de pesquisas em 115
instala?ðes que mant?m sob cust-dia menores que aguardam decisðes sobre
asilo.
Entre as 33 instala?ðes que responderam – pesquisa, 48 por cento disseram
que mant?m menores nas mesmas celas de delinquentes juvenis, e que mais da
metade desses locais usa o confinamento solitýrio como forma de puni?Ðo. As
algemas (ou instrumentos semelhantes) sÐo usadas em 83 por cento dos
centros de deten?Ðo quando os menores precisam se deslocar para audi?ncias
ou consultas mÎdicas. Elas sÐo empregadas como puni?Ðo em 30 por cento dos
lugares.
S- 35 por cento dessas instala?ðes disseram – Anistia que costumam informar
o motivo da deten?Ðo e os direitos jur'dicos –s crian?as, disse a Anistia.