Migrant Detention: A Global Crisis for Refugee and Immigrant Children - Essay Sample

Introduction

The communities around the globe have become home for the refugee and immigrant children who fled from their countries. The immigrant children around the world are affected by immigration detention. Detention of migrants, stateless individuals and refugees have become disproportionate and an arbitrary intervention to the violation of the immigration law. Detention in most nations is utilized whenever the immigrants enter a nation illegally. Immigration detention is the deprivation of liberty towards the immigrants under the aliens' law due to their status. The states are setting laws that restrict the irregular entry of immigrants, thus stating that continuous entry of illegal immigrants' results detention. Immigration detention accomplished through various mechanisms, techniques and logics obtained from penal systems and criminal justice (Grant 69). The number of deaths in the children detention centres has continued to increase due to inhumanity in these centres. The conditions in these centres are unfavorable since they are overcrowded, thus forcing children to wear soiled clothes. Therefore, due to the experiences encountered by children in the detention centres, this paper will discuss the reasons against keeping children in the detention centres.

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In the United States, most undocumented children cross the southern border due to abject poverty, unprecedented violence and lack of protection from their countries. Children experience traumatic experiences from their families and their original countries while moving and resettling to various states (Linton, Griffin and Shapiro 2017). During the movements by the immigrants into the United States, they implemented the media campaigns and rose the immigration enforcements to control immigration. The Department of Homeland Security holds the immigrant children who are either unaccompanied or in the family units (Linton, Griffin and Shapiro 2017). Whenever an accompanying parent does not provide legal documents to prove they are the biological parents of the immigrant children, the adults are separated from these children to avoid mistreatment. Children who are detained with their legal guardians or parents are repatriated to their original countries under the removal procedures or the laws provided into the society awaiting an immigration hearing.

The principle of equality guides the immigration detention as it helps in proper dissemination and accessibility of resources. Decision making about detention cannot be discriminatory since children and adults from different backgrounds are located in them. Also, through equality rights, the immigrants are set to enjoy the same rights as the nationals. In respect to the international human rights, the rights of the immigrants must be respected even though their rights to stay is unprotected. The principles of non-discrimination and equality require that the differences between various groups become prescribed by the law and become proportionate to their goals (Grant 72). Therefore, the principle of justice does not permit detention that discriminates based on ethnicity and nationality.

Children in the detention centres are subjected to police violence during interrogation, arrest and detention in most police stations. Children are held for long periods in the pre-trial detention, thus affecting their mental health. Also, children encounter violence during the post-trial detention, which includes sexual and physical harassment by the adult detainees. Through police violence, children tend to live in fear, thus not being able to express themselves during interrogations (Turnbull 15). Continued violence in the detention centres leads to health deterioration of the kids, and in severe cases, it can lead to death. Therefore, to control harassment in the detention centres, systems can ensure children are detained separately from the adult detainees.

Consequently, adults and children in the detention centres lack essential resources such as toothpaste, soaps, and places to take a bath. Lack of vital resources leads to the emergence of diseases which put the lives of children under risk. Also, children sleep on the concrete floors due to overcrowding in these centres (Turnbull 20). Sleeping on the concrete floor makes children susceptible to colds and pneumonia. In the children centres, babies tend to drink from the unwashed bottles due to insufficient drinking water. Also, there are inadequate diapers for babies in the detention centres, thus putting them under risk of getting diseases. Therefore, due to the insufficient resources in the children detention centres, the policymakers can set laws that guide against the children detention centres.

In the children detentions centres, the minors are mistreated by the majority due to ethnicity and other racial differences. Mistreatment in these centres makes the lives of the minor challenging since they cannot access the vital resources quickly. Also, these centres do not have adequate ventilation spaces, thus making the room to have increased temperatures. Inadequate control of temperatures in the children detention centres put them under the risk of having the disease (Turnbull 17). Therefore, the development of social amenities and the sleeping areas in the children detention centres can help in solving issues experienced in these centres.

Solutions Towards the Issues Encountered in Children Detention Centres

Voluntary repatriations are among the durable solutions to the challenges encountered by refugees and immigrants. According to Protection, voluntary repatriation requires proper strategies that ensure the choices made concerning the return of immigrants are free from coercion, voluntary and are based on the target information (191). Successful repatriation activities are conducted by involving every stakeholder such as the origin and host countries, returnees and the international organizations. Therefore, the cooperation arrangements allow utilization of the proper framework for the sustainable return developed in the host states and provision of the legal information.

Immigrant children in the detention centres experience the mental health issues that arise from the challenges in these centres. For the state to deal with these issues, they can develop care systems that concentrate on meeting the mental health needs among the affected children. Through the development of these systems, the states have the opportunity to determine how they can overcome the mental health challenges through thoughtful and planned programs (Gower 2011). Also, the collaboration of various therapeutic programs in a state can help in determining the best strategies for solving mental health issues. Therefore, implementation of this solution can minimize the occurrence of mental health cases in the children detention centres.

Conclusion

Immigration detention is the deprivation of liberty towards the immigrants under the aliens' law due to their status. Children immigrant experience challenges in the detention centres, thus calling for states and international organization to be against the detention of children. Some of the problems encountered by children in detention centres are; lack of essential resources such as toothpaste, soaps, and places to take a bath, mistreatment by the majority due to ethnicity and other racial differences, and the higher temperatures due to inadequate ventilation in these centres. Also, children in the detention centres are subjected to police violence during interrogation, arrest and detention in most police stations. Mistreatment of children leads to mental health issues that call for various interventions to minimize the experienced problems. Therefore, the use of voluntary repatriations acts as a durable solution to the challenges encountered by refugees and immigrants.

Works Cited

Gower, Melanie. Ending child immigration detention. House of Commons Library, 2011. Retrieved from https://idcoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/End-Child-Detention-Advocacy-Brochure_web_spreads_190816-1.pdf

Grant, Stefanie. "Immigration detention: Some issues of inequality." The Equal Rights Review 7 (2011): 69-82. Retrieved from http://www.corteidh.or.cr/tablas/r27135.pdf

Linton, J. M., M. Griffin, and A. J. Shapiro. "Council on Community Pediatrics." Detention of immigrant children. Pediatrics 139.5 (2017): e20170483. Retrieved from https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/139/5/e20170483

Protection, Refugee. "The 10-Point Plan in action." The 10-Point Plan in action (2007): 184-203. Retrieved from https://www.unhcr.org/50a4c17f9.pdf

Turnbull, Sarah. "Immigration detention and punishment." Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice. (2017): 1-26. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311770251_Immigration_detention_and_punishment