Rights and protection of migrants

Letter June 22, 2018
US President Donald Trump has reversed his ‘zero tolerance’ policy towards the Mexican migrant children

ISLAMABAD: In an unexpected yet admirable move, US President Donald Trump has reversed his ‘zero tolerance’ policy towards the Mexican migrant children who had illegally crossed into the US with their parents. The move come in the wake of a public backlash that Trump faced not just from the leaders across the world but also from many from his own country, particularly the celebrities who donated millions for the protection of the rights of migrants.

In case of non-reversal of the move, the presidential order would have rather led to another huge migrant crisis of the world history where children would have been separated from their parents not due to a war or a conflict situation but by the scrapping off of a law that had initially protected them.

Over the past years, the migrant and refugee crisis have emerged as issues equivalent to poverty and hunger in magnitude. Quite less can be hoped out of the efforts of the world community to deal with the rapidly escalating situation with hundreds crossing into other countries to run away from war and turmoil. The least that can be done is to protect those who have already managed to migrate by giving them their due rights and legal protection.

Ammara Zubairi

Published in The Express Tribune, June 22nd, 2018.

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