The Obama administration is rolling out long-awaited rules to protect unaccompanied children immigrants from sexual abuse.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Friday issued new standards intended to prevent, detect and respond to the sexual abuse of unaccompanied children living in government facilities.
{mosads}The new rules come in response to the tens of thousands of Central American children who are crossing the southwest U.S. boarder without their parents.
The unaccompanied minors are housed in government-run facilities like shelters, group homes and residential therapeutic centers as they await their immigration proceedings, where they may be vulnerable to sexual abuse.
In response to what critics say is a growing crisis, HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) issued a “zero tolerance policy” Friday that it says will weed out sexual abuse from the system.
“Sexual violence and abuse are an assault on human dignity and have devastating, lifelong mental and physical effects on an individual,” HHS wrote in the Federal Register.
The rules follow recommendations made by the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission. They go into effect June 24.