God save children from misguided global powers

Dear Editor,

FIRST it was Donald Trump’s USA that separated American children from their non-American parents, and kept and still keeps these children in concentration camps without basic parental care.

Trump’s own sister is on record expressing the general indignation of the American society by drawing attention to her dismay at the picture of Trump’s daughter cuddling her children when other American children are denied this basic right of a mother’s shoulder to lean on.

For America which has traditionally been known to go an extra mile to protect the American citizen regardless of their social status or colour, and is known for protection of children, this is a new chapter in American social practices.

In all human societies, parental care of children is seen as basic in human development. If children are robbed of that care at the critical time in their lives, society may be planting seeds of human monsters without human values of empathy.

When you look at pictures of the American children separated from their parents, it is hard to imagine them growing into adults with love and care for society because they are denied an opportunity to assimilate these values from their environment.

If it were possible it would be better to keep families together by deporting the American children together with their parents, and for the American citizen to return after they do not need parental care.

But this would prove legally difficult for the US President to deport an American citizen. Thus, before Trump, the human approach to keep families together was to accept parents of American children in the US.

This practice changed with Trump’s show of toughness against immigrants of colour. But this is anything, but toughness. Where is the toughness against helpless innocent children who did not choose the circumstances of their birth?

As if the Trump’s American tragedy is not enough, now Germany and France are proposing to take 400 minors to be separated from their immigrant parents in Europe. This is now to reinforce and perpetuate and institutionalise Trump’s separation of families - especially minors from parents in the global system.

Germany and France should find another way of helping without separating families of immigrants.

To the best of my knowledge, there are no Zambian parents/ families involved in the USA or European cases, but as a global citizen I am concerned about the immediate affront of family separation to basic human values, and even more concerned about the risks of creating future human monsters out of innocent children.

The world should unite against the misguided Trump practice with diplomatic channels and more human approaches to immigration challenges.