By Naomi McAuliffe, Amnesty International Scotland
AMNESTY International doesn’t take torture lightly. We don’t use the word unless we have reason to do so; usually in cases where international laws or treaties have been breached. Which is why you will understand how serious it is when we say Donald Trump’s policy on child asylum seekers is tantamount to torture.
We have seen sickening images of children cruelly separated from their parents and held in cages, a direct result of United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s “zero-tolerance policy for criminal illegal entry”. The images of crying and screaming toddlers being taken from their parents were almost too much to bear. But we mustn’t look away; the pictures must force us to act.
It took less than 24 hours for the policy to achieve a unique feat: all four living former US First Ladies have been publicly critical of the Trump administration’s policy of separating families. Laura Bush wrote in the Washington Post: “Our government should not be in the business of warehousing children in converted box stores or making plans to place them in tent cities in the desert outside of El Paso.” Michelle Obama retweeted the article with the message: “Sometimes truth transcends party.”
Erika Guevara-Rosas, Director of Amnesty International Americas, has called the policy “spectacularly cruel”. It is a flagrant violation of human rights and is designed to impose severe mental suffering on these families and to deter people from trying to seek safety in America. Many of the families come from countries experiencing grave human rights violations, including Honduras and El Salvador.
This policy is nothing short of torture. The severe mental suffering that US officials have inflicted on asylum-seeking families for coercive purposes means that these acts meet the definitions of torture under both US and international law, as well as being a clear violation of US obligations under refugee law.
Since the policy came into effect, more than 2,000 children have been separated from their parents or legal guardians at the US border. Children’s rights are violated in multiple ways: they are detained, separated from their parents or guardians, and exposed to unnecessary trauma.
Today is World Refugee Day so it’s appropriate that we also consider how we treat refugee and asylum-seeking families in this country. The UK Government’s family reunion rules enable some families forced to flee their homes due to conflict or persecution and separated during their journey to be safely reunited in this country. However, many refugee families are separated by cruel restrictions in these rules. Children are denied the right to sponsor their parents or siblings to come to the UK. This has a devastating impact on those affected and is a serious violation of children’s rights.
This is one reason we work with partners on the Families Together campaign to change these rules and allow families to be reunited. The UK-wide campaign has gained cross-party support at Westminster. In March, 131 MPs supported a private members Bill in the Commons, introduced by Angus MacNeil MP, that seeks to reform these restrictive laws. The Lords are also pressing for these unfair rules to be changed.
At the Bill’s Committee Stage, Home Office Minister Baroness Williams said: “The Government takes extremely seriously the principle of family unity for refugees in the UK who have fled persecution and need our protection.” We, with our partners, hope to hold the UK Government to this standard so that, in this country at least, families torn apart fleeing horrific situations can be reunited in safety.
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