Church concerned about unaccompanied minors detained in Mexico

Published: 2006-07-27

QUETZALTENANGO, Guatemala (CNS) -- Church workers have expressed concern about the care of unaccompanied Central American minors detained in Mexico while attempting to migrate illegally to the United States. The most common abuse cited by undocumented children traveling alone was being robbed, often by Mexican immigration authorities or other uniformed authorities, said Betsy Wier, a project leader in Honduras for Catholic Relief Services. Representatives of CRS, the U.S. bishops' international relief and development agency, and migrant-support organizations recently finished a monitoring trip -- the first of a nine-month study -- to southern Mexico and Guatemala to interview migrant children and check conditions in detention facilities and shelters. "We're looking at what's supposed to happen and what the reality is," said Wier. The group found a lack of consistency in methods of deporting children back to their home countries.

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