June 20, 2003	Friday	Rabi-us-Sani 19, 1424

WASHINGTON, June 19: Illegal immigrant children in the United States often are imprisoned with young convicts, denied access to lawyers and strip-searched or placed in solitary confinement for minor infractions, Amnesty International USA, says in a report.

The 83-page report, the first ever on this problem, gives several examples of harsh treatment meted out to these children in prisons across the United States.

The survey results, combined with interviews with 31 detained children and numerous attorneys and children’s advocates, show that US officials, in contravention of both international and domestic standards, often treat unaccompanied children like young criminals — sometimes without even acknowledging the distinction.

“I would describe the situation as Dickensian,” said William F. Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International USA. “It’s truly incredible that in the 21st century in the United States we would allow children who themselves have been victims of crimes to be treated this way.”

“It is appalling that many officials don’t understand the difference between a juvenile offender and an unaccompanied child and that they deny these fragile young asylum seekers respect and rights,” he added.

Mr Schulz said this was grossly unfair to children whose only ‘offence’ is seeking safe haven in the United States. “Many have fled dangerous situations, including child trafficking, abusive families and armed rebel forces. When we treat these children harshly, they are further traumatized, and our country’s credibility as a protector of rights is eroded.”

Amnesty International sent a detailed questionnaire on the policies, procedures and conditions of detention to 115 facilities nationwide that reportedly have housed unaccompanied children. The responses from the 33 facilities that returned a completed survey document the many problems endemic to a system that locks up children who are not convicted of crimes — particularly in so-called secure facilities:

* Forty-eight per cent of secure facilities reported that they house unaccompanied minors in the same cells as juvenile offenders;

* More than half (57 per cent) said they use solitary confinement as punishment;

* Eighty-three per cent said they routinely restrain children when taking them outside the facility;

* Only 13 per cent provide the children with the required weekly psychological counselling;

* Only 35 per cent reported that they explain to children why they have been detained in such a facility and that they have the right to judicial review of the decision to put them there.