Photo Exhibition: Children Don’t Migrate, They Flee
Please join the Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking and Too Young to Wed at a cocktail reception and viewing to celebrate the opening of
Children Don’t Migrate, They Flee
Wednesday, January 20th, 5:00PM to 7:00PM
Russell Senate Office Building, Kennedy Caucus Room (SR 325)
Children Don’t Migrate, They Flee includes photographs by award-winning photojournalists Katie Orlinsky, Kirsten Luce, Meridith Kohut, Estaban Felix, and Moises Castillo. The exhibition runs in the Russell Senate Office Building Rotunda from Tuesday, January 19th, to Friday, January 22nd, 2016.
Photographers Kirsten Luce and Katie Orlinsky will be available to discuss their work
Tens of thousands of unaccompanied children and families arrived at the U.S. border in 2014, illuminating a human rights crisis that plagues Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador in Central America’s Northern Triangle.
Harrowing conditions – escalating rates of violence in the streets and at home, a widespread climate of impunity, high rates of corruption and public mismanagement, and widespread poverty – are at the root of this forced migration. And while the number of unaccompanied children and families arriving at the U.S. border has declined since the peak in 2014, the root causes have not subsided. Stepped-up border security in the United States and Mexico are keeping these vulnerable children and families away from our borders and sending them back to their countries with little or no due process to determine whether they deserve protection.
This exhibition includes photographs and commissioned assignments by award-winning photojournalists Katie Orlinsky, Kirsten Luce, Meridith Kohut, Estaban Felix, and Moises Castillo that portray the dire circumstances that compel unaccompanied children and families to flee. If they survive the harrowing journey, rife with violence, exploitation and trafficking into sex and labor, these children and families will face a future that is uncertain at best.
Instead of battling a perceived immigration crisis at our border, the U.S. government should address the forced migration of children by investing in stronger child protection systems, by strengthening rule of law to reduce the climate of impunity for perpetrators of gang and family violence, and by fostering regional solutions that address the root causes of violence and insecurity driving children from their homes.
Children Don’t Migrate, They Flee is a project of the Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking (ATEST) and Too Young to Wed (TYTW).
The Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking is a U.S.-based coalition that advocates for solutions to prevent and end all forms of human trafficking and modern slavery around the world. ATEST member organizations include: Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST), Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), ECPAT-USA, Free the Slaves, Futures Without Violence (FUTURES), International Justice Mission, National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA), National Network for Youth (NN4Y), Polaris, Safe Horizon, Solidarity Center, Verité, and Vital Voices Global Partnership. ATEST is a project of Humanity United. Learn more at endslaveryandtrafficking.org.
By providing visual evidence of the human rights challenges faced by women and girls around the world Too Young to Wed aims to amplify their courageous voices and build a global community dedicated to ending child, early, and forced marriage and supporting positive change for these girls. Learn more at tooyoungtowed.org.
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