China, like-minded countries concerned by violation of children's rights at immigration detention centers

GENEVA, March 9 (Xinhua) -- China and a group of countries on Wednesday called on the UN rights body to continue to attend to violation of children's rights at immigration detention centers in some countries.

Delivering a joint statement on behalf of a group of countries at the ongoing 49th session of the Human Rights Council, Jiang Duan, minister of the Chinese mission to the UN in Geneva, said the world is still faced with multiple challenges in the protection of children's rights, including the violation of children's rights at immigration detention centers.

"Certain countries have held migrant children at immigration detention centers for a prolonged period of time where conditions are deplorable, and the rights of migrant children are seriously violated," he noted.

"We are concerned in particular that in some countries migrant children were forcibly taken away from their parents, many ended up losing touch with their parents and families, which led to grave human tragedies," he added.

In some countries, Jiang pointed out, immigration detention centers are run by private institutions, where widespread incidents of abuse and violence against children are perpetrated.

He urged countries concerned to immediately stop human rights violations at immigration detention centers, halt family separation, prevent private institutions from operating detention centers and hold the perpetrators accountable.