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STORY: GENEVA / US MIGRANT POLICY REAX
TRT: 2:35
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 19 JUNE 2018 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, exterior shot, Palais des Nations
2. Wide shot, United Nations press room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Christophe Boulierac, spokesperson for the United Nations Children’s Fund, (UNICEF):
“For decades, the US Government and its people have supported our efforts to help child refugees, asylum seekers and migrants affected by crises across the globe, whether it be war in Syria or South Sudan, famine in Somalia or an earthquake in Haiti, the US has been there to help and take in uprooted children.”
4. Med shot, journalist.
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Christophe Boulierac, spokesperson for the United Nations Children’s Fund, (UNICEF):
“I think our main role here is to make the point, Ben, is that what’s happening is not right and, and, more than that, immigration enforcement and protecting the right of children are not a zero-sum game.”
6. Close up shot, journalist.
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Christophe Boulierac, spokesperson for the United Nations Children’s Fund, (UNICEF):
“The impact, for instance, of child detention has an immediate effect on very young children on being separated. I’ll give you just an example that research shows that children who have not seen a parent for one month after the parents’ arrest experience more frequent changes in sleeping habits, anger and withdrawing from family, compared to children who have seen their parents within a month after arrest.”
8. Close-up, journalist.
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Christophe Boulierac, spokesperson for the United Nations Children’s Fund, (UNICEF):
“We respect the State’s, a State’s legitimate immigration and public security concerns, but what we don’t want, and that’s our point here, is that, that the best interest of the child is not respected.”
10. Medium shot, journalists.
11. Close-up, a journalist typing on a laptop
12. SOUNDBITE (FRENCH) Christophe Boulierac, spokesperson for the United Nations Children’s Fund, (UNICEF):
« Vous savez, nous avons, nous faisons un plaidoyer très fort depuis plusieurs années sur six points sur cette problématique des enfants migrants et deux des points principaux c’est le fait de ne pas détenir les, les enfants, donc ce à quoi vous faites allusion va dans un très mauvais sens, je n’ai pas de détails sur cela, mais il n’est pas possible de détenir les enfants sur la base du statut migratoire, c’est très clair, c’est notre position. Tout comme nous demandons à ce qu’ils ne soient pas séparés, des enfants, de leurs parents. »
13: Med shot, journalists.
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday that countries have every right to protect their borders but separating migrant children from their parents at the US border is not in children’s best interest, underlining that “immigration enforcement and protecting the right of children are not a zero-sum game.”
Reiterating comments from UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore on Monday in which she described “heartbreaking” stories of infants who had been taken from their parents, spokesperson Christophe Boulierac told journalists in Geneva that immigration and children’s rights were not incompatible.
Boulierac was speaking amid reports that very young children have been held in US detention centres while their parents are prosecuted for illegally entering the country via its southern border.
Answering a question from a reporter, Boulierac said “I think our main role here is to make the point… that what’s happening is not right and, and, more than that, immigration enforcement and protecting the right of children are not a zero-sum game.”
Speaking in French, Boulierac noted that separating children from their parents was a step in the “wrong direction”.
The development comes despite the country’s long-standing solidarity with those in crisis around the world, he continued, adding that “for decades, the US Government and its people have supported our efforts to help child refugees, asylum seekers and migrants affected by crises across the globe, whether it be war in Syria or South Sudan, famine in Somalia or an earthquake in Haiti, the US has been there to help and take in uprooted children.”
Confirming that the US is the only country which has yet to ratify the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child, the UNICEF spokesperson insisted that all countries have a right to defend their borders, as long as it was in their best interest.
“We respect the State’s, a State’s legitimate immigration and public security concerns, but what we don’t want, and that’s our point here, is that, that the best interest of the child is not respected.”
Research showed that taking children into custody without their parents had an “immediate” and negative effect on their wellbeing, the UNICEF spokesperson said: “The impact, for instance, of child detention has an immediate effect on very young children on being separated. I’ll give you just an example that research shows that children who have not seen a parent for one month after the parents’ arrest experience more frequent changes in sleeping habits, anger and withdrawing from family, compared to children who have seen their parents within a month after arrest.”
