The United Nations’ human rights chief is demanding that the Trump administration stop forcibly separating migrant children from their parents, calling the recently imposed policy “unconscionable” and an “abuse.”
Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein spoke Monday to a regular session of the U.N.’s Human Rights Council in Geneva, his last such speech before his term ends.
He listed frustrations with many countries, but his public rebuke of the United States was notable because the U.S. has historically had a relatively strong rights record. It also was the latest example of international angst over President Donald Trump’s actions.
“In the United States, I am deeply concerned by recently adopted policies which punish children for their parents’ actions,” al-Hussein said. “The thought that any state would seek to deter parents by inflicting such abuse on children is unconscionable.”
Al-Hussein also cited American pediatrics experts in describing the U.S. policy as “government-sanctioned child abuse” which may cause “irreparable harm.”
Over the past six weeks, the United States has separated around 2,000 children from their parents as they crossed the U.S. border. Many of the families were crossing the border illegally, but others had intended to apply for asylum upon reaching U.S. soil. The Trump administration policy is intended to deter migrants from coming to the United States.
Reporters in recent days have been given tours of facilities housing the detained children, many of whom were kept in groups in cages built out of chain link fencing.
Al-Hussein’s office denounced the U.S. child separation policy two weeks ago as well. That prompted the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, to strike back, accusing al-Hussein’s office of speaking “ignorantly.”
“We will remain a generous country, but we are also a sovereign country, with laws that decide how best to control our borders and protect our people,” Haley said in a June 5 statement. “Neither the United Nations nor anyone else will dictate how the United States upholds its borders.”
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