AMERICA : HONDURAS : REPATRIATION OF CHILDREN EN MASS

Agenzia Fides REPORT - From two border towns of Honduras, Aguas Calientes and El Corinto, where about 200 minors return every week, arrives the testimony of Sister Lydia Mara Silva de Souza, National Coordinator for the Pastoral Care of Human Mobility of Honduras. The religious notes that about 10 percent of immigrants that undertake the dangerous journey to the United States, are Honduran children. Of these, at least four out of ten are sent back home every day from Mexico.
In the note sent to Fides by the Catholic weekly to our Agency, Sister Lydia says that "in the case of immigrant children, they do not want to go back because the main reasons that lead a child to immigrate to the United States is for family reunification and the life of violence they suffer in the family, with physical, mental and emotional abuse, as well as sexual and labor exploitation."
The nun, who receives the support of several houses of immigrants and NGOs also reported that the Honduran consulates in Mexico and Guatemala do not offer any help in this terrible situation, while the number of children going out of the country increases, and unfortunately the parents’ silence does not help to define the actual number of children who are in Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico. (CE) (Agenzia Fides 03/10/2012)

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