Michael Garcia Bochenek
Michael Garcia Bochenek is senior counsel to the Children’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch, focusing on juvenile justice and refugee and migrant children. He has researched and reported on criminal and juvenile justice systems and prison conditions, the protection of refugees and internally displaced persons, the exploitation of migrant workers and other labor rights issues, the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons, and rights violations in armed conflict, including the use of children as soldiers. From 2006 to 2015, he was director of policy and then director of law and policy for Amnesty International’s secretariat in London, where he oversaw strategic litigation, among other responsibilities. Earlier, he worked as counsel, senior researcher, and then deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Children’s Rights Division in New York, directed a non-profit immigration legal services office in Washington State’s Yakima Valley, and was the Leonard Sandler Fellow with Human Rights Watch’s Americas Division in Washington, D.C. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University and a law degree from Columbia University. In addition to English, he speaks Spanish and Portuguese.
Articles Authored
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April 9, 2022
Asylum Seekers Face Real Harm from US Border Policy
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November 25, 2021
Tragedy in English Channel Should Be Turning Point in Border Standoff
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November 3, 2021
France Should End Abusive Policies Toward Migrants
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October 7, 2021
Showing the Despair, and the Beauty, in Migrants’ Lives
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July 8, 2021
UK Shouldn’t Detain Asylum Seekers Offshore
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February 11, 2021
What Biden Needs to Do to Restore Rights at the Border
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February 2, 2021
US Takes Steps to Reverse Family Separations
Other Writing
Reports Authored
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“I Felt So Stuck”
Inadequate Housing and Social Support for Families Seeking Asylum in the United Kingdom
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“Like We Were Just Animals”
Pushbacks of People Seeking Protection from Croatia to Bosnia and Herzegovina
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US: ‘Remain in Mexico’ Program Harming Children
Families Seeking Asylum Exposed to Violence, Illness, Trauma
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US: Separated Families Report Trauma, Lies, Coercion
Officials Responsible for Sparse Communications, Lagging Reunification
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Australia: Appalling Abuse, Neglect of Refugees on Nauru
Investigation on Remote Pacific Island Finds Deliberate Abuse Hidden Behind Wall of Secrecy
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Colombia: Displaced and Discarded
The Plight of Internally Displaced Persons in Bogotá and Cartagena
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Hatred in the Hallways
Violence and Discrimination Against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Students in U.S. Schools
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Detained and Deprived of Rights
Children in the Custody of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service
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