PNP affiliate blast US policy, calls for children to be reunited with their families swiftly

The External Affairs Commission of the People’s National Party (PNP) says it hopes the United States (US) Government will act swiftly and effectively to immediately reunite hundreds of migrant children who were separated from their families at the US-Mexico border.

The concern comes days after US President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order to end his administration’s policy of separating children from parents caught crossing the border illegally.

The PNP affiliate group, in a statement, said the decision to cease this aspect of America’s zero-tolerance approach to illegal border crossing is timely and says it hopes the relevant agencies will act swiftly to reunite these families.

The Commission said it respects the right of sovereign states to protect the integrity of their borders as well as to regulate immigration policy as they deem necessary and within their national interest.

However, the commission says it deplores the recent implementation of a policy approach to immigration taken by the US and is expressing grave concerns about the ongoing border crisis.

It says this approach has led to the deliberate separation of children from their parents without a clear plan of reunification.

According to the PNP affiliate, “this runs counter to the humanitarian ethos that has long informed immigration in the United States, which has historically been the land which welcomed the oppressed peoples of the world fleeing persecution and atrocities.”

“The harrowing sights and wailing of children traumatised by their separation from the protective care of their parents; and the dehumanising warehousing of children in cages send a wrong signal around the world and impairs any moral authority of the United States,” the commission said.

“The Commission condemns in the strongest term this arrangement,” It added.

However, the PNP commission commended those American citizens who expressed their disagreement with the zero tolerance approach.

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