Translated by Jesús Ronquillo / Circuito Frontera
A total of 4,141 unaccompanied migrant children and adolescents have resided in state DIF shelters of Chihuahua.
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The minors are mainly from countries such as Honduras, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, El Salvador, Ecuador, Brazil, Cuba, Haiti and Mexico, arriving in the state in search of a safe haven, state authorities reported in a press release.
The document indicated that, since to date, the Casa del Menor Migrante and the Centro de Asistencia Social “Nohemí Álvarez Quillay” have received the migrant minors, after they are alone in their journey and are repatriated to their places of origin by authorities of the United States.
During their stay in the shelters, the children and adolescents receive personalized psychological support, psycho-emotional talks to deal with migratory grief and prevent suicide.
They are also provided with medical care, quality housing and food, as well as participate in educational, recreational and occupational activities, in order to spend their time in a more positive way, given that their average stay is up to 3 months, while their immigration status is being resolved.
Also, the Office of the Attorney General for the Protection of Children and Adolescents is in charge of implementing legal mechanisms to guarantee the protection and restitution of the rights of these minors in a situation of mobility, as well as issuing the corresponding protection measures.
Protection measures include requests for refuge, regularization for humanitarian reasons, family reunification in Mexico, family reunification in a third country, and, in appropriate cases, assisted return to their country of origin.
In the case of migrant children and adolescents of Mexican nationality identified as repatriated, we work in collaboration with state child protection offices to process family reunifications and provide them with appropriate follow-up.
