Submitted by crinadmin on
Summary: In this report, Human Rights Watch
charges the U.S. Immigration and
Naturalization Service (INS) with
violating the rights of unaccompanied
children in its custody. In this report, Human Rights Watch charges the U.S. Immigration and
Naturalization Service (INS) with violating the rights of
unaccompanied children in its custody. The report finds that roughly
one-third of detained children are held in punitive, jail-like
detention centers, even though most children in INS custody are being
detained for administrative reasons while their case is pending, not
as a punishment for criminal behavior. Approximately 5000
unaccompanied children are detained by the INS each year. Human
Rights Watch focused its report on a Pennsylvania facility that the
INS claims is one of the best in the country. However, the report
found that too many children are locked up in prison-like conditions
with juveniles accused of murder, rape and drug trafficking, where
they are forbidden to speak their native language, instructed not to
laugh, and, according to several interviewees, even forced to ask
permission to scratch their noses. Human Rights Watch found that some
children are strip searched and restrained by handcuffs during
transport, and denied basic rights to privacy.