Phoenix, July 10 (RHC)-- In the U.S., there are new accounts of mistreatment and sexual violence experienced by locked-up migrant children at a Yuma, Arizona, detention facility.   In nearly 30 testimonies collected by Health and Human Services case managers, children complained of hunger, having to sleep on concrete floors or outside, and lack of access to basic sanitation.  A 15-year-old girl said an officer groped her underneath her clothing during what was supposed to be a routine pat-down, and joked around with other agents during the ordeal.

The Donald Trump administration has dismissed reports of abuse against detained migrants despite recent congressional visits to migrant jails and multiple accounts of mistreatment recorded by legal and other experts.  Trump said migrants were “very happy,” while acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan called such accounts “unsubstantiated.”

Meanwhile, a new report from The New York Times and El Paso Times details the ongoing dire situation at the Border Patrol station in Clint, Texas, where hundreds of migrant children are locked up without access to sufficient food, water, sanitation, beds or proper medical care.

U.S. Border agents reported spreading “outbreaks of scabies, shingles and chickenpox” among the children. One staffer says he was ordered to remove beds from children to make more space in the overcrowded cells.  The facility has been described by an expert who visited it as a “child jail.”