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The illegal removal of children from biological family life during conflict has a longstanding history. This research paper provides a brief overview of the Vietnam Babylift and of a more recent child abduction attempt in Chad. Then, turning to the history of child abduction and adoption history in Latin America, the paper presents the conflicts of El Salvador and Argentina and discusses ‘living disappeared’ children – those who disappear into adoption networks during war. The research explores the post-conflict social realities in both nations. The role of the social worker and specific…
Through a recent country study and their cash transfer research programme, The International Poverty Centre published The Challenges of El Salvador’s Conditional Cash Transfer Programme, Red Solidaria. The report documents the experiences in El Salvador where we see family support services and outreach incorporated in the cash transfer programme. The integrated approach of the conditional cash transfer programme combines cash transfers with co-responsibilities in health and education as well as other components. The paper documents the El Salvadoran experiences…
Seeking Asylum Alone is a two-year comparative study documenting the circumstances and treatment of unaccompanied and separated children who cross borders in search of protection. The study was conducted in three countries—the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia—where the distinctive problems facing child asylum seekers are significant and unresolved. This report concerns the United States. Reports describing the findings in the other countries, and an overall analysis comparing policies and practices in all three countries, will be published later this year (2006).
This report…
This study was commissioned by the Save the Children Alliance initiative “Care and Protection of Separated Children in Emergencies” (CPSC) to investigate the phenomenon of El Salvador’s disappeared children. The fieldwork for the study was undertaken by the author heading a small research team consisting of two research assistants, one of them a former “disappeared” child. Considerable emphasis was placed on the active participation of children (now mostly young adults), their families of origin and foster or adoptive families. A small group of young people (who had also experienced forced…
This survey highlights efforts to disarm, demobilize and reintegrate former child soldiers in Cambodia, Colombia, El Salvador, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Kosovo, analyzing them in terms of policy and legal issues, political context and program implementation. The special needs facing the former child soldiers are discussed along with political situation and child protection in each country. Conclusion, lessons learned, challenges and recommendations are presented at the end of the survey.
This survey stresses that disarmament; demobilization and reintegration programs need to…
This article from BBC News tells the stories of "cuckoo families" in El Salvador, women and families who are chosen and forced by gang members to care for gang members' children. One woman, Maria, picked up her children from an activity at the local church and found a boy, Andres, waiting to be picked up. She offered him a ride home but when they arrived at the house, no one was there. Maria eventually took the boy home and got a phone call the next day. "It was a man. He said that I was in charge of Andres now," Maria said. "If anything happened to him, worse would happen to me. He said…
This article explores the many obstables and legal challenges that unaccompanied minors are experiencing in the judicial system in the state of Arizona in the US in their efforts to obtain legal status and be granted asylum.
As the number of children fleeing gang violence in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras soars, UNHCR is launching a campaign for US$18 million in vital aid.
In this New York Times opinion piece, Kristof discusses one family’s story about the abuses they experienced while living in Honduras. His article highlights the dangers families are facing in Central America. He discusses how President Obama’s deportation policies are forcing families to stay in countries where their lives are at risk, and he argues that U.S. policies need to change in order to provide a safe haven for children and families at risk.
This Op-Ed piece from the New York Times offers harsh criticism of the U.S. and Mexican policy that sends young refugees back to the communities they are risking their lives to escape. “I admire much about the Obama administration,” says the author “including its fine words about refugees, but this policy is rank with deadly hypocrisy.” The author says the US government has coerced Mexico into doing its “dirty work” by detaining and deporting refugees that enter into Mexico from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, including young people and children who are fleeing unprecedented gang…