Home > What we do > Research and policy > Conferences > Conference info
On March 16 2016, Centro SOL has the opportunity to be part of the Migration Conference organized by the American Red Cross “Community Resilience: Evolving Perspective and Approaches to Migration”. During this conference, our codirector was the master of ceremonies, serving not only to introduce the panels, and speakers, but also as a representative of the hard work done by our center: Dr. Sarah Polk, MD, MPH, Medical Director, JHBMC Children’s Medical Practice, and CoDirector, Centro SOL.
Walter Cotte Witingan, Regional Director for Latin America, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, summarized a day full of information and feelings around migration. He described the migrants from Central American as “forced” migrants, because they are not migrated for economic hardship, they are fleeing from violence, poverty, and leaving without any hope of returning, neither with hope of recognition.
The migrants we see in Baltimore are not recognized as asylum seekers, nor refugees. They live in an regulatory limbo, fearing deportation, prosecution, and family separation.
The Alliance to End Slavery & Trafficking presented an exhibition titled “Children don’t migrate, they flee” which portraits the desolation of the children crossing the border to the U.S. “tens of thousands of unaccompanied children and families from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador arrived at the U.S. border. […] Sadly, this humanitarian crisis shows no signs of abating.”
Date and Time
March 16, 2016