TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - U.S. officials said on Friday that nearly 2,000 children were separated from adults at the border between mid-April and the end of May as the Trump administration implements stricter border enforcement policies.
Administration officials say the tactic is necessary to secure the border and suggest it will act as a deterrent to illegal immigration.
But Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the policies "punish children for their parents' actions".
"The thought that any state would seek to deter parents by inflicting such abuse on children is unconscionable. I call on the United States to immediately end the practice of forcible separation of these children," Zeid said in his final speech to the U.N. Human Rights Council before his term in office ends.
Source: AP