Over the course of the month, the Centro de Atención a Menores Fronterizos has doubled its intake of accompanied and unaccompanied minors who have been deported from the United States.
Over the course of the month, the Centro de Atención a Menores Fronterizos has doubled its intake of accompanied and unaccompanied minors who have been deported from the United States.
José Guadalupe Villegas García, coordinator of the Centro de Atención a Menores Fronterizos, explained that this migratory phenomenon is a result of the massive deportations that authorities in the neighboring country are carrying out through Reynosa.
He recalled that they began the year by assisting around 150 to 180 deported or returned children and adolescents, a figure that fell by 70 percent from February to July, a period during which they received an average of 50 to 70 minors when mass deportations from the United States to other Mexican border towns took place.
However, this month the figure has risen again to more than 150 cases, due to the massive deportations that have once again been concentrated in the town. Of the smallest returnees, 40 percent are foreign, mainly from the so-called "Triangle of Central America", which includes Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras,
whose population emigrates to the United States through Mexican lands, as a "route of passage".
The official pointed out that the Center's care extends to the companions of returned minors, whether they are their parents or relatives who have also been deported, who are channeled by the National Institute of Migration to the Center for the Care of Border Minors.
This is "in accordance with the law on children and adolescents, which states that returned minors have to be with their families, and here we attend to them, prioritizing the best interests of the minor," she said.
Villegas García said that the institution he chairs has the capacity to provide care for returned minors and their families, mainly in terms of food and accommodation, as well as medical, psychological and legal assistance, in addition to paying the plane tickets for them to return to their places of origin.
In the case of returned, accompanied and unaccompanied foreign minors, the Center provides them with the same attention, with the exception of the payment of bills, which is the responsibility of the INM authorities, said the coordinator of the organization.
Source: El Mañana
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