By Jasper Ward
Jan 27 (Reuters) – U.N. human rights experts on Tuesday denounced the Trump administration’s decision last year to cut legal aid for unaccompanied children in U.S. immigration proceedings.
The condemnation came days after U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk urged the Trump administration to ensure that its migration policies respect individual rights and international law.
“Denying children their rights to legal representation and forcing them to navigate complex immigration proceedings without legal counsel is a serious violation of the rights of children,” said the independent experts, who are appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council.
In February, the U.S Department of the Interior ordered legal service providers working with the children to stop work and cut their funding. The providers sued over the move and a federal judge later temporarily restored the funding for the program.
The move came amid President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, including an effort to deport hundreds of thousands of migrant children who entered the U.S. without their parents.
The U.N. experts called the deportations unlawful and said they breached international human rights law prohibiting the removal of vulnerable groups, including children at risk of human trafficking.
They also condemned the administration’s $2,500 offer to get the unaccompanied children to voluntarily leave the U.S.
“Child-sensitive justice procedures should be guaranteed in all immigration and asylum proceedings affecting children,” said the experts, who have been in contact with the U.S. government on the issue.
The White House and the U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
(Reporting by Jasper Ward in Washington, editing by David Ljunggren, Alexandra Hudson)
