Immigration-News-2014
70 Percent Of Undocumented Didn’t Make Their Gov’t Follow-Up This Year Reuters

Mexican NGO 'Sin Fronteras' (Without Borders) has expressed serious concern at the growing number of unaccompanied migrant children held in inadequate conditions in the detention facilities of Mexico. The mental state of children in the centers of the National Migration Institute (INM) are a serious concern: the reported conditions include depression, anxiety and hopelessness, said the group in a report released by the newspaper El Universal.

According to Sin Fronteras, keeping children in those places also constitutes a violation of the law because, due to their vulnerability, infants should be sent to a hostel of the National System for Integral Family Development (DIF) . Figures from the non-governmental organization in 2013 indicate that the INM retained nine thousand 893 migrant children in detention centers, of which seven thousand 995 were 12 to 17 years old, and 898 thousand were below age 11.

Of the total number of migrant children, 300 were unaccompanied, but Sin Fronteras noted that few of them were transferred to facilities DIF. According to the INM, in correspondence with current regulations, children under 11 should be sent immediately to detention, but these agencies themselves have demonstrated the impossibility of receiving older children to ensure the protection of the younger ones. Central American leaders met with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Friday to discuss the crisis.

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