Florida billboards call on US to stop ‘locking up’ kids to mark World Children’s Day

Amnesty International USA has put up billboards in Florida to mark World Children’s Day, calling on the United States to stop “locking up” kids.

The two billboards, located in Orlando and Miami, mark World Children’s Day on Wednesday and feature messages drawing attention to the scores of migrant children currently and previously detained in the U.S., according to NBC News.

“We don’t believe in locking up children. Do you?” the billboard in Orlando asks. The sign is located roughly 10 miles from Disney World.

{mosads}”You are now 7 miles away from where kids are locked up,” the other billboard in Miami reads.

That billboard is a short distance from a facility in Homestead, which sits empty but used to house detained immigrant children.

In addition to the billboards, Amnesty International USA has featured messages on trucks and sidewalk pavements, NBC News notes.

One sign reads: “Florida: Amusement parks. Beaches. Detained children.”

NBC News reports the now-empty Homestead facility held more than 14,300 children between March 2018 and August 2019, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

It was temporarily shut down following protests by activists and pressure from Democratic lawmakers, including several 2020 presidential candidates who visited the facility.

Amnesty picked World Children’s Day to launch the billboard campaign as the day commemorates the United Nations General Assembly’s decision to adopt the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, an international treaty on childhood ratified by world leaders.