World Children's Day: Billboards in Florida denounce detention of migrant kids

Ahead of the World Children’s Day on November 20, an international human rights organisation erected billboards in the United States to draw the attention of the public towards the issue of detained migrant children. The eye-catching billboards in Miami and Orlando have been put up by Amnesty International near facilities where immigrant children were detained.

Dignity and respect for all children

A billboard in Miami near such homestead detention centre read, “You are now 7 miles away from where kids are locked up” while another one in Orlando asked, “We don’t believe in locking up children. Do you?”. The billboards also include a web address TruthAboutHomestead.org to learn about the campaign. It wants all kids to be treated with the same with dignity and respect, irrespective of their immigration status.

Read: UN Expert: 100,000 Kids In Migration-related Detention In US

Petition to concerned authorities

Amnesty International, through its partner website, has initiated a petition calling upon the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary to implement the recommendations of its report into the Homestead facility. The human rights organisation, through the petition, has urged the concerned authorities to close the “temporary influx” facility as soon as possible and never to detain unaccompanied children.

“However, if detention is necessary in exceptional circumstances, children should be placed for the shortest period of time possible in small-size, state-licensed, permanent ORR shelters while they are reunified with their families in the USA, or matched with other appropriate sponsors,” read the petition.

Read: US Expresses Concern Over Detention Of Gulalai Ismail's Father In Pak

Homestead - a place for detention

Though the US government had reported non-renewal of the contract with Comprehensive Health Services, the company operating Homestead, Amnesty International alleged that the government wants to keep it open so that kids can be detained again. According to the organisation, the Homestead facility detained more than 14,300 children without prioritising healthcare, safety and well-being of the children.

“It has become a place that kids enter with no idea when they will be freed. It is not equipped to care for, to protect, or support the kids detained there,” it said.

Read: Australia HRC Calls For Public Inquiry In Immigration Detention Cases

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