VARIOUS: "Don't waste on deportation," says Honduran archbishop

Record ID: 348935

  • Title: VARIOUS: "Don't waste on deportation," says Honduran archbishop
  • Date: 8th July 2014
  • Summary: UNION HIDALGO, OAXACA, MEXICO (JUNE 18, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF TRACKS FROM TOP OF TRAIN WOMAN AND TWO CHILDREN ABOARD TRAIN VARIOUS OF MIGRANTS TRAVELLING ON TOP OF TRAIN PEOPLE WALKING ALONGSIDE TRAIN LAREDO, TEXAS (JUNE 19, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF MIGRANTS SEARCHING THROUGH DONATED CLOTHING MIGRANTS LOOKING THROUGH DONATION PILE IN THE BUS PARKING LOT OF THE GRE
  • Embargoed: 23rd July 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Mexico
  • Country: Mexico
  • Topics: People,Religion,Religion
  • Reuters ID: LVA4D2DGS4AEWRS3BC50BHC7TM5T
  • Story Text: A Honduran archbishop attending the 2014 National Migration Conference in Washington, D.C. said on Tuesday (July 8) that deportation is not the solution for the thousands of migrant children arriving unaccompanied on the U.S. border. Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga of the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa said deportation doesn't always work, because migrant workers sometimes make the journey many times in their lives.
    "I got a report from a bishop in the north of Africa, who was telling me recently 'I have interviewed people who have done it (migrated illegally) 10 times, so, don't waste on deportation, spend on development," the archbishop said.
    The archbishop spoke with Reuters Television as the White House asked the U.S. Congress for $3.7 billion in emergency spending on Tuesday to address a cross-border surge of children from Central America that is taxing public resources and causing a political headache for President Barack Obama. Obama has vowed to swiftly return to their home countries the tens of thousands of children under 18 who have flocked to the United States in recent months.
    Many who flee from Honduras are escaping extreme poverty, gangs and drug violence. Ann Richard, Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration at the US Department of State, said that the solution isn't to flee, but to try to improve the situation in their home countries.
    "One of the things I know propelling the president, and propelling I know my colleagues at the State Department is to change the situation in the country from which they're leaving, so they don't have to make such a dangerous journey in the first place. So they can flourish in the countries in which they've been born and where they ought to have the right to grow up peacefully and safely. So nations must work together to address the danger and deprivation that are driving this exodus," the assistant secretary said.
    When asked about recent reports of girls taking contraceptives, assuming they will be raped along their journey, the archbishop said the Catholic Church in Honduras is telling the girls not to go.
    "There's a religious community, the (female) Missionaries of San Carlos, or of Monsignor Scalabrini that work tirelessly, and in all the parishes we have centres where we speak (to the girls), where we give them talks, we tell them 'don't go, take care of yourselves, etc.' But before hunger, before hardship, one sees that words aren't necessary, and sadly we don't have the resources to be able to offer them (the girls)," he said.
    More than 52,000 unaccompanied minors from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras have been caught trying to sneak over the U.S.-Mexico border since October, double the number from the same period the year before. Thousands more have been apprehended with parents or other adults.
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