On Tuesday, August 25th, we held a webinar to discuss the Young Center’s safe repatriation program. Our team fights for separated and unaccompanied immigrant children and much of our work centers on their release from custody and reunification with family.  In some cases, our international home studies are used in our advocacy to show that it would be dangerous for a child to return to home country. Other times, the children we serve want to return, often to reunite with family members, and our goal is to ensure that they can do so safely. Whenever a child returns to home country, we work with our partners to help locate the resources repatriated children may need as they adjust to life in their home country. In all circumstances, planning for a child’s safe return is increasingly complex today due to COVID-19 and the government’s rush to deport children as quickly as possible. In some cases, children have been held in hotel rooms with adult immigration officials overnight; in other cases, they have been detained by their own governments upon return, where their families cannot reach them. At this webinar, front-line advocates from the Young Center and our partner organization Justice in Motion discussed how we’ve changed our work to facilitate children’s safe return during a global pandemic and why it is more important than ever that children's best interests are considered in every decision during immigration proceedings. 

Webinar speakers included our Managing Social Worker in New York Shaina Simenas, our Social Worker for the Young Center’s Safe Repatriation Program Estrellita Alvarado, and the Child Detention Fellow at our partner organization Justice in Motion Glykeria Tsiokanou. The conversation was moderated by Young Center Development Director AJ Albinak and our Senior Policy Analyst for Child Protection Mary Miller Flowers joined the Q&A portion.

Click here to download the webinar transcript.

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