The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has said it is “heartened” by the United States’ president’s signing of executive orders on Tuesday which aim to provide safety and solutions for those seeking asylum, on the grounds that they need protection from violence and persecution at home.
The current policy in the United States of separating “extremely young children” from their asylum-seeker or migrant parents along the country’s southern border “always constitutes a child rights violation”, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said on Tuesday.
The number of women in Central America and Mexico fleeing gang violence is rising at an alarming rate, fuelling a new refugee crisis in the region.
That’s the conclusion of a new report from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), called “Women on the Run”.
In early 2014, thousands of children escaping gang violence in Central America sparked a refugee crisis on the US border, prompting a heated debate over immigration.