RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Many children’s shelters in Guatemala are currently faced with full beds and deported minors arriving every week. Guatemalan authorities report an increase in deportations of children and youths from the USA in recent months. The accommodation facilities in the Central American country are close to their capacity limits.
In late March, Donald Trump lifted the protection for minors against deportation. Accordingly, the number of deportations has risen: Between April and June, 3,300 unaccompanied minors were intercepted in the USA, of which only 160 remained in custody in the country and the vast majority were deported. During the same period, some 379 children and youths were sent to Guatemala – 176 of them in July alone.
Anaeli Torres, head of the state social welfare department, said that Guatemala was only able to accept 115 children from the USA and Mexico in shelters. Currently, about 50 children are being deported from those countries every week. The shelters are at their capacity limits. Although the number of minors in shelters is constantly fluctuating, many deportees are unable to return to their families due to gang violence and domestic abuse. Leonel Dubon, director of a private children’s home in Guatemala City, points out the critical situation in his home. His institution is completely full with 40 children who cannot be sent home due to safety issues.
The coronavirus crisis is yet another problem: only some ten percent of deported minors have been tested for the virus. In Quetzaltenango, in the west of the country, the first cases of coronavirus have already been reported in a children’s shelter in deported youths. As a result, approximately half of the residents were forced to evacuate to Guatemala City, while the other half went into quarantine. Such cases also hinder the return of the children to their families or villages, as the deportees are suspected of carrying the virus.
Source: Reuters