Milan, 9 June 2018
On 26 May, news broke out of the US on the Trump Administration’s unprecedented “zero tolerance” policy, inhumanely detaining and separating immigrant children from their parents at the US border, sparking a wave of protests in at least 30 cities across the North American continent.
International protests and petitions quickly followed suit. Groups in London, Spain, Denmark, France, Switzerland, and Germany took swift action in solidarity with this movement. Spain was home to the first protests with overseas American citizens, holding demonstrations on 27 May and 1 June in Plaça Catalunya, Barcelona. London’s protest at the US Embassy occurred in solidarity with the Families Belong Together sister marches in the states on June 30th.
This action triggered a wave of international support and petitions, with concerned US citizens in UK across Europe, and beyond.
On 5 June, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights also condemned the United States: “Detention is never in the best interests of the child and always constitutes a child rights violation…The US should immediately halt this practice of separating families and stop criminalizing what should at most be an administrative offence.”
What can you do?
–Sign the petition for US citizens abroad, available in multiple languages.
–Check out the social media Action Toolkit for US Citizens Abroad here.
More information:
Jessica Craig/DA-BCN: craig.jess@gmail.com , +34674324402
Eric Stevenson/Madrid Resistance: ebsg227@gmail.com, +34677612060
Families Belong: Anna Tarkov, media@familiesbelong.org, +1 773-844-6302
Hashtags: #EndFamilySeparation #FamiliesBelongTogether