CRC/C/MEX/CO/3
page 15
8. Special protection measures
(arts. 22, 30, 38, 39, 40, 37 (b)-(d), 32-36 of the Convention)
Refugee children
60.
The Committee notes the introduction in 2002 of the “Programme for the Protection of
and Assistance to Asylum-Seeking Unaccompanied Children” and the Memorandum of
Understanding signed in 2004 with the United States of America “for the safe, ordered, dignified
and human repatriation of Mexicans”. However, the Committee remains concerned at the large
number of unaccompanied children who are returned to their country of origin from Mexico, and
at the absence of measures to protect unaccompanied migrant and refugee children. It is further
concerned at the large number of unaccompanied children who are returned to Mexico and at the
lack of capacity of the State party to protect and reintegrate all of them.
61.
The Committee recommends that the State party, taking into account the
Committee’s general comment No. 6 (2005) on the Treatment of Unaccompanied and
Separated Children Outside their Country of Origin, take all necessary measures to:
(a)
Ensure that an appropriate legal and operational framework for the
guardianship of foreign unaccompanied children is developed;
(b)
Identify unaccompanied and asylum-seeking children along the southern
border within the massive migratory flow, and ensure that they receive appropriate care;
(c)
Enhance the capacity of DIF and of the Mexican Commission of Help to
Refugees (COMAR) to protect unaccompanied migrant children, including by organizing
trainings and awareness-raising programmes on the specific rights and vulnerability of
unaccompanied minors;
(d)
Ensure that asylum-seeking children and children who have an irregular
migratory status are not detained and have access to special reception and care
arrangements, such as that provided by the Tapachula centre;
(e)
Ensure that all unaccompanied children who are returned to the State party
receive appropriate protection and care, in particular verifying that social reinsertion
measures are available to them;
(f)
Engage in further bilateral or multilateral discussions with neighbouring
States to provide for appropriate treatment of unaccompanied children throughout the
region;
(g)
Seek technical assistance in this respect from, among others, UNHCR.
Economic exploitation
62.
While noting the activities undertaken by the State party to reduce child labour and the
decrease in the number of working children in the country, the Committee expresses its concern
at the widespread occurrence of child labour, in particular of indigenous children, and at the