NEW YORK – Federal officials have moved migrant children and adolescents from a shelter in Westchester County, New York, after receiving reports that detainees there had been mistreated.
The allegations of abuse at a facility run by the Children’s Village, a shelter operator in Dobbs Ferry, were first reported by CNN on April 16.
The Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement to The New York Times that it was aware of the abuse claims and, as a result, transferred unaccompanied children to other locations and notified investigators.
An audit of the facility was completed Jan 20, and the children were removed from the facility the next week.
Unaccompanied migrant children are the responsibility of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, known as ORR, within the Health and Human Services Department.
“The safety and well-being of children in ORR care is a top priority,” Mr Andrew Nixon, a Health and Human Services spokesperson, said in a statement. “Any credible concerns are addressed swiftly and thoroughly.”
A lawyer who had visited the facility said children who had been detained there had been punished with restraints and seclusion.
Ms Leecia Welch, the chief legal counsel at Children’s Rights, a nonprofit organisation that represents children in government custody, said adolescents had complained about being placed alone for days in what they described as a “red room”.
“There’s just no question kids have been harmed,” Ms Welch said. “Children’s behaviours continue to worsen the longer they are detained in these facilities, and these types of harmful practices create a perfect storm for them to get seriously injured.”
Mr Christopher Rucas, a spokesperson for the Children’s Village, which was founded in 1851 to care for children legally removed from their parents, said that the allegations were distressing.
“We have zero tolerance for any form of punishment,” Mr Rucas said in a statement. “All teens in our care deserve the highest level of care, support and professionalism from every adult responsible for their well-being.”
The New York State Justice Centre for the Protection of People with Special Needs, a state agency, had received complaints about the shelter and said that it was investigating them. The agency declined to comment further. NYTIMES