Guatemala: On 17 June, human rights entities from Guatemala, Mexico, Ecuador, and Colombia published a joint petition which was sent to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) requesting the issue of precautionary measures to prevent the separation of immigrant children from their families on the US border with Mexico. The petition was published by Guatemala’s human rights ombudsman and was also signed by Mexico’s national human rights commission and the ombudsmen from Colombia and Ecuador. It requests that the IACHR requires the US to take measures to protect the rights of families, personal integrity, and liberty and to abstain from separating children from their families. The petition by the Latin American countries comes after on 6 April US Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the US Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) new “zero tolerance” policy on illegal immigration at the US’s southern border. This policy requires the prosecution of all adults who illegally enter the country via the border including those who are accompanied by children. The policy of separating such children from their families and placing under the care of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the US Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) has now been halted. However, a representative of the DHS revealed to reporters on 15 June that almost 2,000 minors had been separated from their families during the period from 19 April to 31 May, after the new policy came into effect.
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