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U.S. human rights violations in immigration detention centers draw grave concerns
CGTN
File: Men who were caught crossing the U.S. border with Mexico illegally wait in a holding cell at the U.S. Border Patrol processing center in Nogales, Arizona. /Getty

File: Men who were caught crossing the U.S. border with Mexico illegally wait in a holding cell at the U.S. Border Patrol processing center in Nogales, Arizona. /Getty

More than 30 countries on Friday expressed their grave concerns over the violations of human rights in the U.S. immigration detention centers and called for immediate actions to settle the problem at a sideline online meeting of the 47th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Themed "Human Rights Situation in USA Immigration Detention Center," the video meeting was jointly held by permanent missions to the UN in Geneva of China, Venezuela, Belarus, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Iran and Syria.

Diplomats from more than 30 countries, officials from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, NGOs and reporters participated in the event.

Ambassador Chen Xu, China's Permanent Representative to the UN Office at Geneva (UNOG), stressed that the safety, dignity, human rights and basic freedom of immigrants should be protected with concrete actions.

Central Americans who spent weeks traveling across Mexico walk from Mexico to the U.S. side of the border, Tijuana, Mexico, April 29, 2018. /Getty

Central Americans who spent weeks traveling across Mexico walk from Mexico to the U.S. side of the border, Tijuana, Mexico, April 29, 2018. /Getty

Noting that the UN High Commissioner and the Special Procedures have repeatedly expressed concerns over the U.S.' human rights record on immigrants and its relevant policies, Chen, together with other countries' representatives present, urged the U.S. to take immediate actions to settle the issue.

The meeting would help people to understand the real situation of immigration detention centers as well as the hypocrisy and double-standards of the U.S. human rights policies, said Chen.

Representatives from many countries, including Russia, the DPRK, Belarus, Iran, Syria and Nicaragua also made speeches and urged the U.S. to stop arbitrary detention of immigrants and forcibly separating children from their parents.

According to the representatives, the U.S. should focus on solving its own human rights problems and stop using human rights as a tool to interfere in other countries' internal affairs.

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