The U.S. Justice Division on Wednesday charged the biggest supplier of shelters for immigrant youngsters with failing to guard minors from sexual abuse at its government-funded amenities.
In accordance with the company’s criticism, since at the least 2015, workers of Southwest Key, a Texas-based group, sexually abused and harassed unaccompanied migrant youngsters at shelters operated by the NGO. The alleged crimes embrace rape, touching, solicitations for intercourse, nude photographs, voyeurism, and sexual feedback and gestures to youngsters.
The Justice Division mentioned there have been greater than 100 allegations of “illegal sexual abuse or harassment” of kids housed at Southwest Key. The company requested a federal choose in Austin, Texas, to impose civil penalties on Southwest Key and pressure the group to pay restitution to victims. A number of the workers concerned, based on the division, have already been criminally prosecuted.
“Southwest Key did not systematically right its practices and allowed the harassment to proceed with out enough intervention,” the lawsuit concludes. The Justice Division didn’t present particular numbers of abuses or say whether or not the middle will proceed to function as regular regardless of the allegation.
Southwest Key has 29 shelters in Arizona, California and Texas, with the capability to accommodate greater than 6,000 youngsters. Experiences of those crimes in opposition to minors started to floor as early as 2018. Between fiscal years 2015 and 2023, Southwest Key obtained greater than $3 billion from the Division of Well being and Human Providers.
In an announcement to CBS Information, Southwest Key mentioned its “major purpose is the security, well being and well-being of every youngster and youth in its care.” “We’re persevering with to overview the criticism, and it doesn’t current an correct image of the care and dedication our workers present to youth and youngsters,” the group added.
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