This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Nobel peace prize laureate Malala Yousafzai has criticised as “cruel” Donald Trump’s policy of separating children from their parents at the US-Mexico border.

“This is cruel, this is unfair and this is inhumane. I don’t know how anyone could do that,” Yousafzai said on Wednesday during her first visit to South America where she was promoting girls’ education. “I hope that the children can be together with their parents.”

More than 2,300 children were separated from their parents after the Trump administration began a “zero tolerance” policy on illegal immigrants in early May, seeking to prosecute all adults who cross the border illegally from Mexico into the United States. Trump stopped separating families in June following public outrage and court challenges.

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Yousafzai’s stern words contrasted with her effusive praise in 2017 for Canada’s embrace of refugees under prime minister Justin Trudeau. At the World Economic Forum in Davos this year Malala also questioned Trump’s record on women’s rights.

Yousafzai was visiting Rio de Janeiro to kick off the expansion of her education charity, the Malala Fund, into Latin America, starting with Brazil.

Her aim in Brazil, Latin America’s largest economy, is to advocate for more public spending on education, a difficult task after the country passed a constitutional amendment freezing federal spending in real terms for two decades in order to reduce public debt.

She also hopes to get an estimated 1.5 million girls currently not in school into the classroom, with a special focus on minority groups who lag behind white children on key indicators like literacy and secondary school completion.

“It is important for us to reach the indigenous and the Afro-Brazilian population in Brazil. Those girls are facing many challenges,” Yousafzai said.

In 2014 Yousafzai was made the world’s youngest Nobel laureate – honoured for her work with her foundation, a charity she set up to support education advocacy groups with a focus on Pakistan, Nigeria, Jordan, Syria and Kenya.

The group’s Brazil presence kicked off with a $700,000 three-year grant for three Brazilian female activists focused on education issues. Yousafzai says she hopes to expand elsewhere in Latin America.

Earlier this year, the 20-year-old returned home to Pakistan for the first time since a Taliban gunman shot her in the head in 2012 over her blog advocating girls’ education.

Weeks ahead of presidential elections in Pakistan, Yousafzai is ruling out politics for herself for now.

“I’m still talking to leaders and ensuring that they prioritise education in their policy,” she said. “It’s easier that way than when you’re on the inside.”