GENEVA: The United Nations (UN) on Friday acknowledged Washington’sdecision to stop separating migrant families at the US-Mexico border butinsisted that detaining children with their parents was not the solution.

“Children should never be detained for reasons related to their or theirparents’ migration status,” UN rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasanitold reporters in Geneva.

“It is never in the best interest of the child for them to be detained,”she said.

Her comments came two days after US President Donald Trump, in a stunningabout-face, ordered an end to his administration’s widely criticised policyof separating families at the border.

Images and recordings of wailing children detained in cage-like enclosureshas ignited global outrage, forcing the abrupt change of tactics.

Trump’s executive order would keep families together but in custodyindefinitely while the parents are prosecuted for entering the countryillegally.

The president’s order also suggests the government intends to hold familiesindefinitely by challenging a 1997 court ruling known as the FloresSettlement, which places a 20-day limit on how long children, alone or withtheir parents, can be detained.

Shamdasani slammed this solution, insisting that Washington “needs toexplore non-custodial alternatives to detention, bearing in mind first andforemost the human rights of these migrants, in particular where familiesand children are involved.”

“Irregular migration should not be a criminal offence. These people shouldnot be treated as criminals,” she said.

The UN, she said, is calling for the “US to just overhaul its migrationpolicies, urging the country to find “community-based alternatives todetention for children and families.”

The UN children’s agency UNICEF also vehemently opposes the policy,spokesman Christophe Boulierac told reporters.

“We oppose two things: We oppose separating children from their familiesfor the purposes of migration control but we also oppose to detentions,” hesaid.

He lamented that the United States was among some 100 countries around theworld that detain children for the purpose of migration control.

“We are working with governments to change that,” he said, insisting thatthere are “alternatives which are working,” including appointing communitymembers who can guarantee that a child will show up in immigration court. -APP/AFP