Largest housing provider for migrant children engaged in pervasive sexual abuse, US says

Largest housing provider for migrant children engaged in pervasive sexual abuse, US says
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This photo taken in Brownsville, Texas, on June 20, 2014, shows a sign display of the Southwest Key Programs, the largest housing provider for unaccompanied migrant children which is now being accused of "severe, pervasive, and unwelcome sexual abuse of and harassment' of children in its care (AP/File photo)
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Updated 19 July 2024
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Largest housing provider for migrant children engaged in pervasive sexual abuse, US says

Largest housing provider for migrant children engaged in pervasive sexual abuse, US says
  • US justice department charged the company and a number of its employees, including supervisors for the crimes
  • The government awarded the provider more than $3 billion in contracts from 2015 to 2023

AUSTIN, Texas: Employees of the largest housing provider for unaccompanied migrant children in the US repeatedly sexually abused and harassed children in their care for at least eight years, the Justice Department said Thursday, alleging a shocking litany of offenses that took place as the company amassed billions of dollars in government contracts.
Southwest Key Programs Inc. employees, including supervisors, raped, touched or solicited sex and nude images of children beginning in 2015 and possibly earlier, the Justice Department said in a lawsuit filed this week. At least two employees have been charged since 2020.
The nonprofit organization is the largest provider of housing for unaccompanied migrant children, operating under grants from the US Department of Health and Human Services. It has 29 child migrant shelters — 17 in Texas, 10 in Arizona and two in California — with room for 6,350 children. The company’s largest shelter in Brownsville is at a converted Walmart with a capacity for 1,200.
Southwest Key disputed the accuracy of the claims in a written statement late Thursday.
The provider has been a major but somewhat low-profile player in the government’s response to the arrival of hundreds of thousands of migrant children traveling alone in recent years and during the separation of thousands of families in 2017 and 2018 under President Donald Trump’s administration. The government awarded the provider more than $3 billion in contracts from 2015 to 2023.
The Border Patrol must transfer custody of unaccompanied children within 72 hours of arrest to Health and Human Services, which releases most to parents or close relatives after short stays at Southwest Key or shelters operated by other contracted providers.
Health and Human Services reported 6,228 children at all of its facilities on June 17, according to the most recent data on its website, which does not break numbers down by shelter or provider. The department declined to say how many children are currently in Southwest Key’s care or if the agency continues to assign children to its facilities.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Austin, where Southwest Key is based, provides extensive details, saying authorities received more than 100 reports of sexual abuse or harassment at the provider’s shelters since 2015.
Among the suit’s allegations: An employee “repeatedly sexually abused” three girls ages 5, 8 and 11 at the Casa Franklin shelter in El Paso, Texas. The 8-year-old told investigators that the worker “repeatedly entered their bedrooms in the middle of the night to touch their ‘private area,’ and he threatened to kill their families if they disclosed the abuse.”
The suit also alleges that an employee of the provider’s shelter in Tucson, Arizona, took an 11-year-old boy to a hotel and paid him to perform sexual acts for several days in 2020.
Children were threatened with violence against themselves or family if they reported abuse, according to the lawsuit. It added that testimony from the victims revealed staff in some instances knew about the ongoing abuse and failed to report it or concealed it.
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said Thursday that the complaint “raises serious pattern or practice concerns” about Southwest Key. “HHS has a zero-tolerance policy for all forms of sexual abuse, sexual harassment, inappropriate sexual behavior, and discrimination,” he said in a statement.
Southwest spokesperson Anais Biera Miraclea said Thursday that the provider is still reviewing the complaint, which she said “does not present the accurate picture of the care and commitment our employees provide to the youth and children.”
Texas, like Florida, revoked licenses of facilities that house migrant children in 2021 in response to an extraordinary influx of people across its border from Mexico, creating what some critics said was an oversight void.
The lawsuit comes less than three weeks after a federal judge granted the Justice Department’s request to lift special court oversight of HHS’ care of unaccompanied migrant children. President Joe Biden’s administration argued that new federal safeguards rendered special oversight unnecessary 27 years after it began.
Special court oversight remains in place at the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the Border Patrol.
Leecia Welch, an attorney for unaccompanied children in the case for court oversight, said the allegations against Southwest Key are “absolutely disgusting” and blamed Texas’ revocation of licenses for “a powder keg waiting to explode.”
“While I applaud the efforts to right the grievous wrongs these children have experienced, I hope the federal government will also take some responsibility for the role it played,” said Welch, deputy legal director of Children’s Rights.
Neha Desai, another attorney involved in court oversight, called the allegations “profoundly disturbing and shocking.”
“I hope that the government takes the most aggressive measures possible to ensure that children currently placed at Southwest Key facilities are not in harm’s way,” said Desai, senior director for immigration at the National Center for Youth Law.
The Associated Press left email messages Thursday with the offices of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and the attorneys general of Arizona and California.
Southwest grew as unaccompanied children began crossing the border in large numbers in 2014, overwhelming US authorities.
The company has found itself in the middle of controversies over immigration and has steadfastly maintained that its mission was to provide quality care for children. It names its facilities “casas,” Spanish for home.
“A typical day for children in a Southwest Key Casa includes breakfast, school, lunch, dinner, homework, snacks, and bedtime,” the Justice Department said in its complaint.
 


Polio outbreak declared in Papua New Guinea

Updated 32 sec ago
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Polio outbreak declared in Papua New Guinea

Polio outbreak declared in Papua New Guinea
SYDNEY: A polio outbreak has been declared in Papua New Guinea, sparking concern about the disease's spread in a country with low vaccination rates, health officials said.
Poliovirus, most often spread through sewage and contaminated water, is highly infectious and potentially fatal.
It can cause deformities and paralysis and mainly affects children under five years old.
The virus was detected in wastewater and environmental samples in the Pacific nation's capital Port Moresby and second largest city Lae, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.
In subsequent testing, two children in Lae were found to have the poliovirus type 2 strain, according to the WHO representative in Papua New Guinea, Sevil Huseynova.
The confirmation of community transmission in the children "constitutes a polio outbreak", Huseynova said in briefing notes provided to AFP on Friday.
The health agency "expresses deep concern over the confirmed outbreak", she said.
Genetic testing showed the polio strain detected in Papua New Guinea was linked to one circulating in Indonesia.
Papua New Guinea was certified as polio-free in 2000, but immunisation rates among children are low -- less than 50 percent, according to the WHO.
"Polio is a highly infectious disease, and in communities with low polio immunisation rates, the virus quickly spreads from one person to another," Huseynova said.
Papua New Guinea Health Minister Elias Kapavore said the situation was "serious but manageable".
"We've dealt with this before and know what works," he told reporters on Thursday.
"Vaccination is safe and effective, and we're acting quickly to keep children protected."

Thai monk arrested over $9 million temple embezzlement

Thai monk arrested over $9 million temple embezzlement
Updated 25 min 22 sec ago
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Thai monk arrested over $9 million temple embezzlement

Thai monk arrested over $9 million temple embezzlement
  • Temples in Buddhist-majority Thailand rely heavily on income from “merit-making” ceremonies where worshippers make donations in hopes of gaining good fortune and better reincarnation
  • The arrest from one of the Bangkok suburb’s most prominent temples has triggered significant backlash on social media

BANGKOK: Thai police have arrested a Buddhist monk over allegations he embezzled more than $9 million from the prominent temple he ran which was funded by donations from devotees.
Investigators from the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) accuse Abbot Phra Thammachiranuwat from Wat Rai Khing of siphoning more than 300 million baht ($9.05 million) from the temple’s bank account into his own.
Investigators traced funds from the temple on Bangkok’s western outskirts to an illegal online gambling network running baccarat card games, local media said.
Temples in Buddhist-majority Thailand rely heavily on income from “merit-making” ceremonies where worshippers make donations in hopes of gaining good fortune and better reincarnation.
Police charged Phra Thammachiranuwat with corruption and malfeasance, CIB deputy commissioner Jaroonkiat Pankaew told reporters at a press conference on Thursday.
“This (arrest) is to help purify our religion,” Jaroonkiat said.
Authorities have arrested a second suspect and are investigating whether others were involved, while local media reported the abbot has now left the monkhood.
Wat Rai Khing, believed to have been founded in 1851, houses a replica of the Buddha’s footprint.
The arrest from one of the Bangkok suburb’s most prominent temples has triggered significant backlash on social media.
“Next time I will donate to a hospital or school for good causes, not a temple,” one user posted on social media platform X.
Others cautioned their fellow Buddhists to remain firm in their faith.
“Not all monks are bad. Don’t generalize,” another X user wrote.


France sues Iran at top UN court over detained citizens

France sues Iran at top UN court over detained citizens
Updated 26 min 12 sec ago
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France sues Iran at top UN court over detained citizens

France sues Iran at top UN court over detained citizens
  • The announcement comes as Iranian negotiators are set to meet with their counterparts from the United Kingdom, France, and Germany

PARIS: Paris has filed a case against Tehran at the top UN court over two French citizens who have been held in Iran for three years, the French foreign minister said on Friday.
The announcement comes as Iranian negotiators are set to meet with their counterparts from the United Kingdom, France, and Germany in Turkiye on Friday for talks on Iran’s nuclear program.
Cecile Kohler, a 40-year-old literature teacher from eastern France and her partner Jacques Paris, in his 70s, were arrested on May 7, 2022, on the last day of a tourist trip to Iran.
They have been held on spying charges, which they have vehemently denied.
In its case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), France accuses Iran “of violating its obligation to provide consular protection” to the pair, who “have been held hostage... detained in appaling conditions that amount to torture,” Jean-Noel Barrot told France 2 television.
They are among a number of Europeans still held by Iran in what some European countries, including France, regard as a deliberate strategy of hostage-taking to extract concessions from the West at a time of tension over the Islamic republic’s nuclear program.
Kohler and Paris are the last known French detainees in Iran after some recent releases and are regarded as “state hostages” by the French government.
The two are jailed in extremely tough conditions, according to their families.


Jihadists in Nigeria turn to TikTok to spread propaganda

Jihadists in Nigeria turn to TikTok to spread propaganda
Updated 31 min 44 sec ago
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Jihadists in Nigeria turn to TikTok to spread propaganda

Jihadists in Nigeria turn to TikTok to spread propaganda

LAGOS: Jihadists in northeastern Nigeria are surging -- and using social media to spread the word of their campaigns and recruit fighters.
At least 100 people were killed in the new wave of jihadist attacks in April alone, as the governor of Borno, the epicentre of the violence which has raged since 2009, said the state is losing ground to armed groups.
At the same time, apparent jihadists and their boosters on TikTok were flaunting rifles, grenades and stacks of cash, according to easily accessible videos reviewed by AFP that same month.
They broadcast live in joint videos with accounts run by men preaching anti-Western ideologies in a style reminiscent of the videos released by deceased Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau in the early days of the 15-year-old insurgency.
Criminal gangs that carry out raids on villages and kidnap for ransom in the northwest of the country have used TikTok in the past.
"It started with bandits," Bulama Bukarti, a vice president at Texas-based Bridgeway Foundation wrote on X. "Now, Boko Haram members are hosting live TikTok shows -- spreading propaganda, justifying their violence and threatening anyone who dares speak against them."
A Boko Haram fighter threatened Bukarti himself in a now-deleted TikTok video for speaking against the group, he said.
While many of the accounts on the video sharing app have been flagged and taken down, the capability of broadcasting live streams on the platform adds another layer of difficulty to monitoring the content they put out.
A TikTok spokesperson said it was difficult to quantify the number of accounts linked to terrorist organisations that have been taken down.
While some of these accounts have been deleted, several others remain active, according to accounts viewed by AFP at the time of publication.
"Terrorist groups and content related to these groups have no place on TikTok, and we take an uncompromising stance against enabling violent extremism on or off our platform," a spokesperson for the company told AFP in an emailed statement.


Among the 19 accounts reviewed by AFP were men dressed as clerics, their faces revealed to the camera even as they called for violence against the government and teamed up with accounts that showed off weapons hauls.
Accounts also post old footage of the original Boko Haram founder, Mohammed Yusuf, and those of Isah Garo Assalafy, who was banned from preaching in public places in Niger state for using violent rhetoric against democracy and Western civilisation.
These accounts frequently go live, interacting with followers, answering questions and receiving digital gifts that can be converted into cash.
Nigeria's jihadist conflict, which over the years has expanded to include a rival Islamic State group, has killed more than 40,000 and displaced some two million people in Africa's most populous country.
Saddiku Muhammad, a former jihadist who has since defected, told AFP that armed groups are turning to TikTok in part because security forces cracked down on the encrypted messaging app Telegram.
They also know TikTok is popular with young people.
"Jihadists realised that to capture the minds of young people, they need to speak to them in the language they understand -- instead of the traditional didactic and demagogic styles that are boring and unattractive to them," Muhammad said.
"From all indications, it is paying off. They are reaching out to young potential recruits."


Analysts told AFP that the use of TikTok by members of armed groups is a direct challenge to the government.
Malik Samuel, a security analyst at Abuja-based think tank Good Governance Africa, said it is a common Boko Haram tactic to use the group's young members to spread propaganda.
"I believe showing their faces is strategic -- to show that they aren't afraid and to let their target know that they are engaging with real people," Samuel said.
Islamic State West Africa Province, however, still appears to follow a more polished, top-down communication strategy than the apparent Boko Haram jihadists posting on TikTok, he said.
TikTok said it has partnered with UN-backed Tech Against Terrorism to improve the detection and removal of violent extremist content.
"Our community guidelines clearly state that we do not allow the presence of violent and hateful organisations or individuals on our platform," it said.
"We will always take action on content found to violate these policies."
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Israeli strikes kill at least 20 people in Gaza as Trump wraps up his Middle East visit

Israeli strikes kill at least 20 people in Gaza as Trump wraps up his Middle East visit
Updated 47 min 14 sec ago
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Israeli strikes kill at least 20 people in Gaza as Trump wraps up his Middle East visit

Israeli strikes kill at least 20 people in Gaza as Trump wraps up his Middle East visit

GAZA: Israeli strikes killed at least 20 people in Gaza on Friday morning, as U.S. President Donald Trump wraps up his Middle East visit.
An Associated Press journalist counted the bodies at the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, where they were brought. Survivors said many people were still under the rubble.
The widespread attacks across northern Gaza come as Trump finishes his visit to Gulf states but not Israel.
There had been widespread hope that Trump’s regional visit could usher in a ceasefire deal or renewal of humanitarian aid to Gaza. An Israeli blockade of the territory is now in its third month.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strikes.