一群医生在一份新报告中表示，特朗普政府应对在美国和墨西哥边境失散的移民家庭因其给父母和子女造成的创伤进行赔偿，该报告揭示了唐纳德·特朗普总统的“零容忍”政策对家庭的长期影响。

在周二上午发布的医生促进人权组织(PHR)的报告中，医生和移民权利倡导者详细描述了2018年特朗普政府在政府受到广泛谴责的政策下将儿童和父母分开后所遭受的创伤，当时有2500多名儿童在边境与他们的亲人分离。

在对17名成年人和9名儿童进行评估后，医生发现，父母和儿童似乎都在与类似的“与创伤及其影响相一致的症状和行为”作斗争。根据该政策，这些儿童平均被隔离60到69天，在评估时，除了一名儿童外，其余的人都已经团聚

父母和他们的孩子谈到“困惑和不安，经常担心，经常哭泣，睡眠困难，吃不好，做噩梦，全神贯注，情绪极度低落，焦虑的症状，恐慌和绝望的生理表现”，包括“心跳加速，呼吸急促和头痛”

他们说，他们与“纯粹的痛苦”和绝望的感觉作斗争，感到情绪和精神上的痛苦，感到“难以置信的沮丧”"

在父母中，几乎每一个被评估的人都被诊断患有创伤后应激障碍，而许多人被诊断患有抑郁症，一些人被诊断患有焦虑症。

报告称，分离后，孩子们的情绪和行为发生了巨大的变化，许多孩子表现出的反应包括“适龄行为的倒退”，包括不愿与父母分开，同时还经常“哭泣，不吃[，做噩梦和其他睡眠困难”

在接受采访时新闻周刊周一，在该报告发布之前，医生促进人权协会的高级医疗顾问拉尼特·米什里博士和该组织的高级庇护官员凯瑟琳·汉普顿说，看到家庭分离对孩子和父母的影响，他们感到不安。

“残忍的程度令人难以置信，”米舍里说。“我们读了一份宣誓书，然后又读了一份又一份，这些令人心碎的故事展现了我们在美国不习惯的残忍程度。”

米什里和汉普顿都表示，重要的是要认识到，对于许多家庭分离的幸存者来说，他们的创伤可能是由一系列事件造成的，包括他们在本国、前往美国边境以及抵达美国边境时的经历。

然而，两位专家都表示，情绪和行为的明显变化，以及在边境分离后出现的新症状，清楚地表明父母和孩子因分离而遭受创伤。

当父母描述他们孩子的情绪和行为发生的变化时，他们“清楚地划分出”他们分开的前一天和他们团聚后的日子。

汉普顿说:“有两个小男孩认为他们的母亲已经去世了，因为她去做了一次医疗手术，之后他们就再也没有见到她了。”。“他们认为自己的母亲去世了，而她没有，这让他们受到了极大的创伤。”

就这两个男孩而言，汉普顿说，孩子们从来没有被适当告知他们母亲的下落，他们想知道母亲发生了什么事，这给两个孩子造成了创伤，除了一开始就被分开。

医生促进人权协会的报告称，特朗普政府在边境分离家庭，然后拒绝向父母和子女告知其亲人的下落——在某些情况下，长达数月——的行为符合“酷刑”和“强迫失踪”的标准。

“酷刑是一种行为，1)造成严重的身体或精神痛苦，2)故意为之，3)出于胁迫、惩罚、恐吓的目的，或出于歧视性原因，4)由国家官员或在国家同意或默许下，”医生促进人权协会的报告解释说。

2018年6月12日，在德克萨斯州麦卡伦附近，边境巡逻人员将中美洲寻求庇护者拘留。这些移民家庭随后被送往美国海关和边境保护局(CBP)的一个处理中心，在那里，根据特朗普政府的“零容忍”规则，其他家庭此前已经分居。

“医生促进人权协会认为，美国政府通过其家庭分离政策对待寻求庇护者的做法构成了残忍、不人道和有辱人格的待遇，并在医生促进人权协会记录的所有案件中构成了酷刑，”它断言。

该报告的作者指出，医生促进人权协会的评估是“根据伊斯坦布尔议定书的原则进行的，该议定书是联合国记录酷刑的准则。在医生促进人权协会记录的案例中，美国官员故意实施和纵容造成严重痛苦和苦难的非法行为，以惩罚、胁迫和恐吓中美洲寻求庇护者，使其以歧视的方式放弃庇护申请。”

报告称:“酷刑和残忍、不人道和有辱人格的待遇是对人权的侵犯，在任何情况下都是国内法和国际法所禁止的。”。

然而，它接着解释了为什么美国的家庭分离政策也符合国际法禁止的强迫失踪标准。

报告称，“强迫失踪被定义为国家隐瞒失踪者的命运或下落而剥夺自由的行为”。

“在医生促进人权协会记录的所有案例中，都有一段时间，父母不知道孩子的下落，无法联系他们，也没有最终联系或团聚的保证或时间表，”它说。“政府未能跟踪儿童和父母、便利父母联系或计划团聚，剥夺了儿童的法治保护，因为他们被剥夺了父母对其福利的监督和同意，没有适当的正当程序，如涉及儿童福利专业人员的听证。”

米什里和汉普顿说，要求美国官员提供孩子健康状况和下落信息的父母，在某些情况下，几周甚至几个月都得不到回答。

米什里断言，其意图似乎是“胁迫和恐吓这些人”。这是政府非常公开的声明...他们想如何利用它作为一种威慑。”

“当你谈论强迫失踪时，人们会想到阿根廷和其他更独裁的国家，”米什里说。“在美国，这不是你经常听到的事情。”

“这是一个清醒的认识，注意到这是一个明显违反国际人权法的事情，它正在美国发生，”医生补充说。

医生促进人权协会的两位代表都表示，确定特朗普政府对待移民家庭的方式的目的是为了能够让政府承担责任。

“它的目的不仅仅是命名它，它的命名基本上是为了传递一个信息，即美国没有履行其对移民的义务，没有正当程序，并说这里存在责任问题，”米肖里说。

“责任的一部分，是我们认为...所有的受害者都需要治疗，他们需要资源，他们需要某种过程来帮助他们从创伤中恢复，我们说美国必须履行包括医疗保健在内的义务，”医生说。

医生促进人权协会说，最终，美国政府欠那些在边境被隔离的移民家庭“赔偿”他们所遭受的创伤。

“这不能被掩盖，”汉普顿说。“美国政府必须履行其义务，为这种侵犯人权的非法行为的受害者提供赔偿。”

 

TRUMP ADMIN OWES MIGRANT FAMILIES SEPARATED AT BORDER REPARATIONS FOR 'TORTURE' AND 'FORCED DISAPPEARANCE,' DOCTORS SAY

The Trump administration owes migrant families separated at the U.S.-Mexico border reparations for the trauma it inflicted on parents and children, a group of doctors have said in a new report shining a light on the long-lasting impacts President Donald Trump's "zero tolerance" policy has had on families.

In the Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) report, which was released Tuesday morning, physicians and immigration rights advocates detail the trauma that children and parents have endured after being separated by the Trump administration in 2018 under the government's widely condemned policy, which saw more than 2,500 children separated from their loved ones at the border.

After evaluating 17 adults and nine children who had been separated under the policy for an average of 60 to 69 days, with all but one child having been reunited at the time of the evaluation, physicians found that parents and children appeared to be struggling with similar "symptoms and behaviors consistent with trauma and its effects."

Parents and their children spoke of "being confused and upset, constantly worried, crying a lot, having sleeping difficulties, not eating well, having nightmares, being preoccupied, having severely depressed moods, overwhelming symptoms of anxiety, physiological manifestations of panic and despair," including having a "racing heart, shortness of breath, and headaches."

They said they struggled with feelings of "'pure agony,' and hopelessness, feeling emotional and mental anguish, and being 'incredibly despondent.'"

Among parents, nearly every individual evaluated was diagnosed with PTSD, while many were diagnosed with depression and some with anxiety.

Children, the report said, were undergoing sweeping changes in their moods and behaviors following separation, with many exhibiting reactions that included a "regression in age-appropriate behaviors," including being unwilling to be apart from their parents, while also regularly "crying, not eating [and] having nightmares and other sleeping difficulties."

In an interview with Newsweek on Monday, ahead of the report's release, Dr. Ranit Mishori, a senior medical adviser for PHR and Kathryn Hampton, the organization's senior asylum officer, said they were disturbed to see the impact that family separation has had on children and their parents.

"The level of cruelty is just incredibly disturbing," Mishori said. "We read one affidavit, then another and another and another and it's the same heartbreaking stories that display a level of cruelty that we're not used to here in the United States."

Both Mishori and Hampton said it was important to recognize that for many survivors of family separation, their trauma could be due to a compound of events, including the experiences they had in their home countries, on their journey to the U.S. border and upon arriving at the U.S. border.

However, both experts said that clear changes in mood and behavior, as well as new symptoms that presented themselves following separation at the border, clearly indicated that parents and children suffered trauma as a result of being separated.

Parents "clearly drew the line" between "the day before they were separated" and the days after they were reunited when they described the changes that occurred in their children's moods and behavior.

"There were two little boys who thought their mother had died because she had gone for a medical procedure and they didn't see her after," Hampton said. "They were extremely traumatized by the fact that they thought their mother had died, when she hadn't."

In the case of those two boys, Hampton said the children were never properly informed of their mother's whereabouts and were left to wonder what had happened to her, creating a traumatic experience for the two, in addition to being separated in the first place.

The Trump administration's actions in separating families at the border and then refusing to inform parents and children of their loved ones' whereabouts—in some cases, for months—meet the criteria for both "torture" and "forced disappearance," the PHR report states.

"Torture is an act which 1) causes severe physical or mental suffering, 2) is done intentionally, 3) for the purpose of coercion, punishment, intimidation, or for a discriminatory reason, 4) by a state official or with state consent or acquiescence," the PHR report explained.

Border Patrol agents take Central American asylum seekers into custody on June 12, 2018 near McAllen, Texas. The immigrant families were then sent to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) processing center, where other families had previously been separated under the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" rule.

"PHR finds that the U.S. government's treatment of asylum seekers through its policy of family separation constitutes cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment and constitutes torture in all of the cases documented by PHR," it asserts.

The report's authors note that PHR's evaluations were "conducted according to the principles of the Istanbul Protocol, the U.N. guidelines for documenting torture. In the cases that PHR documented, U.S. officials intentionally carried out and condoned unlawful actions causing severe pain and suffering, in order to punish, coerce, and intimidate Central American asylum seekers to give up their asylum claims, in a discriminatory manner."

"Torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment are violations of human rights and are prohibited under domestic and international law in any and all circumstances," the report states.

It goes on, however, to explain why the U.S. family separation policy also meets the criteria for enforced disappearance, which is prohibited under international law.

"Enforced disappearance is defined as any deprivation of liberty by the state where there is concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person," the report asserts.

"In all cases documented by PHR, there was a period where parents were unaware of their children's whereabouts, were not able to contact them and had no assurance of, or timeline for, eventual contact or reunification," it states. "Government failure to track children and parents, to facilitate parental contact, or plan for reunification, deprived children of protection under the rule of law, because they were deprived of parental oversight and consent for their welfare, without appropriate due process, such as a hearing involving child welfare professionals."

Mishori and Hampton said parents who requested information from U.S. officials about the wellbeing and whereabouts of their children were, in some cases, not given answers for weeks and months at a time.

The intent, Mishori asserted, appeared to be to "coerce and intimidate these populations. And this was something that was very publicly stated by the administration...How they wanted to use it as a deterrent."

"When you talk about enforced disapperance, people think about Argentina and other countries that are more authoritarian," Mishori said. "It's not something you often hear about in the United States of America."

"It's a sobering realization to note that this is something that is clearly a violation of international human rights law and it's happening in the United States," the doctor added.

The purpose of identifying the Trump administration's treatment of migrant families, both PHR representatives said, was to be able to properly hold the government to account.

"The purpose of it is not just to name it but the naming of it is basically that we would like to send a message that the U.S. was not fulfilling its obligations to immigrants, there was no due process and to say there is an accountability issue here," Mishori said.

"Part of the accountability, is that we think that...all of the victims need treatment and they need resources and they need some sort of a process to help them heal from this trauma and we're saying the U.S. has to fulfil that obligation that includes medical health treatment," the doctor said.

PHR says that ultimately, the U.S. government owes migrant families who were separated at the border "reparations" for the trauma they endured.

"This can't just be swept under the rug," Hampton said. "The U.S. government must fulfil its obligations to provide victims with reparations for this unlawful practice that violated human rights."