CIUDAD JUAREZ, CHIHUAHUA.- On the northern and southern borders of Mexico, schools for migrant children are springing up in an effort so that they do not lose their right to education after months adrift amid immigration restrictions.
In Ciudad Juárez, on the border between Mexico and the United States, hundreds of minors from Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and even from southern Mexico have been studying at the basic level since last September at the Pascual Ortiz elementary school. Blond.
“Children are certified so that they can continue their studies wherever they go, to the United States or their country of origin,” Dora Espinoza, director of the educational establishment, told EFE.
“The first thing we did was to sensitize the staff, but for us, it was a pleasant surprise that the children who come from abroad are not so behind educationally, they adapt easily in classes, they have another perspective on life and it is about learning from them “, he added.
The Government of Mexico registered 70,019 minors in irregular migration in 2022, mainly from Central America, of which almost a fifth traveled unaccompanied, according to a February report from the Ministry of the Interior (Segob).
In addition, in the last five years, the United States has deported more than 217,000 minors to Mexico, according to the Migration Policy Unit of Mexico.
“These are children who are embarking on a difficult path, there are several cases of children who have communicated saying thank you, who are already in the United States. As a teacher, we have a heart full of experience left and the students view their classmates with respect and much love,” the teacher Paulina Rodríguez told EFE.
What happens on the northern border is replicated in the south, on the border with Guatemala.
In Ciudad Hidalgo, the Ignacio José de Allende y Unzaga school is the only school that receives, without distinction, children from Guatemala, Honduras, Salvador, Nicaragua, two Panamanians, and even two Americans, explained Juan José González Pérez, director of the school.
He exposed the seriousness of the psychological problems because there are migrant children who have seen a brother killed or their mother threatened.
“We have noticed that children come with terrible traumas from what they go through in their countries of origin,” he mentioned.
He exemplified that there are children who come without documents, with nothing, so the uniform is not mandatory at school, and thanks to the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (Acnur), packages of school supplies and this year they contributed two classrooms.
Source: Diario.MX
