WILLEMSTAD - Curaçao continues to violate the Rights of the Child by separating Venezuelan children from their parents. Human Rights Defense Curaçao reports that even a baby who is one and a half years old and still breastfeeding has been taken away from her incarcerated mother.
In total, the justice system has separated four children from their parents, including the baby. Three of them, aged five, six, and ten, are currently in a shelter at St. Jozef. However, their parents are not allowed to be with them.
They were intercepted by the coast guard in the early morning of September 21st. When two mothers appeared at the Rio Canario police station around ten in the morning, the children were dirty, smelled of urine, and tearfully stated that they were hungry.
The mothers and a father were subsequently arrested but released the following day. The authorities ordered them to leave their children behind.
The mother of the five-year-old boy is also detained. She has granted her uncle and aunt the authority to care for the child while she remains in detention.
Today, they wanted to pick up the boy, but the Ministry of Justice insists on conducting a housing inspection and preparing a report before allowing it.
Court
Just last week, the court strongly criticized the Curaçao government, ruling that the government had acted unlawfully by separating two other children from their parents, a clear violation of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).
What particularly concerned the Court was that the Curaçao government had not promptly and willingly processed the family reunification request as required by Article 10 of the CRC and had not disclosed the minors' whereabouts to the claimants or their attorney.
The two children in question were immediately reunited with their parents following the verdict.