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Report: Mexican Government Negligent In Caring For Migrant Girl
Mexico's National Human Rights Commission has issued a report reprimanding state and federal authorities for mishandling the case of a migrant girl who died in a shelter last year.
Police picked up 12-year-old Noemi Alvarez in the Mexican border city of Juárez while she was traveling with a man believed to be a smuggler. She was coming from her native Ecuador and was on her way to meet her parents in New York City. Days later she was found hanging from a shower curtain rod in a migrant shelter.
Mexico's National Human Rights Commission said the state agency in charge of child welfare didn't give the girl a proper psychological evaluation and failed to give her the appropriate care. The report also said a federal investigator woke her up in the middle of the night and yelled at her. The Commission asked the Chihuahua state and federal governments to offer compensation to the girl's parents and develop better protocols for dealing with migrant children. While the Commission can make recommendations it doesn't have the authority to enforce them.