C. Relaxation, leisure and cultural and artistic activities
The National Youth Secretariat’s objectives also include healthy leisure activities for young people and optimum use of free time. The activities it carries out to promote participation in cultural activities, and healthy leisure and recreation for young people include:
Youth camps. With the support of the National Council for Public Security, MINED, the Ministry of National Defence and the National Academy for Public Security, youth camps are run as common living areas, where young people learn and practice skills and abilities;
Youth Month. In Youth Month, activities are carried out to promote participation by outstanding young people as citizens in the various areas of national life, through youth meetings, forums, conferences, cultural activities and sports activities;
Youth Power Festival. This is an area for expression, participation and recognition of young people’s artistic and cultural talent. The Festival encompasses art exhibitions, street art, contests, stage art, knowledge quizzes, extreme sports and youth concerts;
Youth Ingenuity Contest. This activity is designed to stimulate young people to develop their creativity in the areas of technology, through recognition, exhibition of projects, fostering young people’s ingenuity and knowledge transfer;
Young Talent Festival. This activity aims to promote the talent of young people with outstanding academic, artistic, cultural or sporting qualities; create the necessary spaces and skills to successfully encourage the abilities of young people, by promoting music, plastic arts, literature and theatre and promote youth issues; and
Outstanding Merit Prize. This is a programme to recognize young Salvadorans who stand out in daily life, and organizations and institutions that offer the best programmes to promote young talent.
Reception mechanisms are established for Salvadoran children found travelling alone in other countries. These are mediated by the various institutions involved, namely the Department of Humanitarian Management and Migrant Care (DGHAM), the Ministry of External Relations, the National Civil Police General Directorate for Migration and Aliens (DGME) and the Salvadoran Institute for Full Development of Children and Adolescents (ISNA), amongst others.
The process begins as follows:
Relatives of the child in El Salvador submit an application to DGHAM and set out the case, showing the child’s birth certificate;
An official appointed by DGHAM: personally interviews the person requesting repatriation;
When a case is submitted by a Salvadoran Consulate abroad, the DGHAM official locates relatives in El Salvador to explain the repatriation process to them and draws up an authorization to be signed by a relative. This enables the Consul to complete the necessary formalities with the local authorities and thus repatriate a person under the age of 18;
If a foreign institution caring for a child asks for a social services report on the family who is to receive him or her in El Salvador, the Consulate requests this from DGHAM;
DGHAM draws up and sends a memo to ISNA requesting the preparation of a social services report on the family who will receive the child in El Salvador;
DGHAM receives the Social Services report on the relevant family prepared by ISNA and sends it to the Consulate;
The Consulate completes the relevant formalities with children’s institutions and migration authorities for repatriation (identification of the child, transfer to the airport or confirmation of repatriation route);
If the authorities in the corresponding country do not provide for the child’s transport, the Consulate will notify DGHAM so that it can liaise with relatives in El Salvador or the relevant bodies in order to obtain the fare;
DGHAM coordinates the child’s reception with the relatives who are to receive the child in El Salvador, DGME and ISNA;
DGHAM hands over the child to ISNA for clearance and subsequent handover to his or her relatives.
With regard to the above process and because the children enter across the La Hachadura border, it has been agreed that the Consul notifies ISNA by email the day it sends the children and also liaises by telephone with the Ministry of Foreign Relations Migrant Care Centre in La Hachadura; ISNA staff go to the Ministry of External Relations Migrant Care Centre and perform the following procedure there:
They receive a list of all children and adolescents.
They confirm which of the children are accompanied by relatives and in possession of documentation.
They carry out interviews with each child and their family to establish that they are biologically related and that the birth certificate and sole identity document (DUI) are correct.
Official record and report forms are then filled in so that the children and adolescents can be handed over to their relatives.
If no relatives are present to meet the children, they are transferred to ISNA and temporary accommodation is organized in the Hogar Moraga and Ciudad de los Niños orphanages for girls and boys respectively. In some cases, the relatives even come to the ISNA in Santa Ana on the same day to reunite the family. Otherwise, arrangements are made by telephone to allow the relatives time until the following day to pick up the children.
Under exceptional circumstances, when the family fails to turn up, the relevant arrangements are made with ISNA branches, according to the geographical area in which the child is resident.
They are sent to ISNA by the DGME or the National Civil Police at the following border posts: Santa Ana, Anguiatú and San Cristóbal de la Frontera or the Paraje Galán police station in Santiago de la Frontera, Ahuachapán, and the Las Chinamas and La Hachadura borders;
The Anguiatú, San Cristóbal de la Frontera, Paraje Galán and Las Chinamas border posts specifically receive children and adolescents who are detected at these borders or border posts when they leave El Salvador heading for other countries;
The La Hachadura border specifically receives children sent by the El Salvador Consulate in Chiapas, Mexico.
1. Numbers of children and adolescents handled
ISNA began work in the field of returning minors in the western area in 2004 and reported as follows:
In 2004 it handled 444 minors;
In 2005 it handled 918;
In 2006 it handled 976 salvadoran children and 56 foreigners entering the country illegally.
The type of assistance offered consisted of providing:
Note that children return by both land and air, in the latter case under the “Bienvenido a Casa” (Welcome Home) return programme, handled by the General Directorate for Migration and Aliens, which reported receiving the following numbers of minors during the following years:
194 in 2004
A total of 269 in 2005
A total of 298 in 2006
The following institutions were involved in this process:
