A child sits in a temporary transit center for migrants from Central America in Mexico City, capital of Mexico, Nov. 5, 2018. (Xinhua/Xin Yuewei)
This year has seen a sudden surge in lone migrant children as part of a larger exodus of Central Americans fleeing extreme poverty, violent crime and prolonged droughts.
MEXICO CITY, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Mexico unveiled a new guideline Wednesday to better attend to a rising number of unaccompanied migrant children crossing its southern border, Mexican Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard said.
The guideline aims to serve as a road map for government agencies involved in caring for the mostly Central American minors attempting to cross Mexico to the United States for asylum.
Titled "Model of care options for migrant girls, boys and adolescents applying for asylum and refugees in Mexico: Guideline for its implementation," the document was supported by the United Nations Children's Fund.
This year has seen a sudden surge in lone migrant children as part of a larger exodus of Central Americans fleeing extreme poverty, violent crime and prolonged droughts.
According to the National Immigration Institute of Mexico, a total of 8,525 unaccompanied minors, mostly from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, were brought before immigration authorities in the first half of 2019.
"They aren't just numbers. These are people. Each one of them is a boy or a girl who is without his or her mother ... or anybody," said Martha Delgado, the undersecretary for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights.
The guideline will be implemented as a pilot project in one region of Mexico before being rolled out nationwide.
Authorities, for example, must identify the minor and entrust him or her to a nearby shelter, where specialists are to provide personalized attention, according to the guideline.
Should the minor seek refugee status, he or she would be temporarily placed with a host family. Host families are to be selected through a process similar to adoption.
