Dozens of official reports have emerged in the US documenting systematic abuse of asylum seekers by various border agencies, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) announced.
Following litigation under the Freedom of Information Act, the HRW had obtained 160 internal reports with records on physical, sexual, and verbal abuse, as well as discriminatory behavior and due process violations between 2016 and 2021, the rights group said on Thursday.
Clara Long, the associate US director of the HRW, called the conduct of the officials involved from Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the US Border Patrol (USBP), and Immigration and Customs Enforcement described in the reports "jaw-dropping."
"These internal government documents make clear that reports of grievous abuses -- assaults, sexual abuse, and discriminatory treatment by US agents -- are an open secret within DHS (Department of Homeland Security)," she said.
The HRW also claimed that the reports raised questions of whether serious allegations, including criminal conduct, are being effectively investigated
Among the instances of sexual abuse, a supervisory asylum officer in San Francisco reported to the DHS that a mother had reported that her young daughter had been forced to undress and was touched inappropriately by a CBP or a USBP officer after they were detained.
In another instance, a male asylum seeker was detained and taken to a detention center in San Ysidro, California, where an officer demanded sexual favors for his release.
The documented misconduct also took other forms, the HRW said, such as authorities having possibly violated asylum seekers' right to due process.
"The Department of Homeland Security appears to have normalized shocking abuses by its border agencies," Long added.
