CBS News: Migrant Children in U.S. Tent Camp Faced Depression and Filthy Conditions, Whistleblowers Say
This article features Government Accountability Project and was originally published here.
Unaccompanied migrant children housed at a U.S. government tent camp inside the Fort Bliss Army base in Texas faced filthy conditions and lacked access to adequate mental health services, according to a whistleblower complaint submitted to Congress and government watchdogs on Wednesday.
Two civil servants in the federal government who volunteered to work at the tent site said distraught migrant children, including some with suicidal thoughts, were referred to staff who were not qualified to assess their trauma and mental health needs. In some cases, children’s requests to speak to a counselor were denied or dismissed, the federal volunteers said.
Arthur Pearlstein, a director at the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service and one of the whistleblowers, interviewed dozens of children held at Fort Bliss who had symptoms of depression, including concerns about self-harm.
“Many, if not most, of the children Mr. Pearlstein interviewed — if they had been at the facility more than a few days — told him they felt like they were in prison and often begged ‘please get me out of here, I don’t know if I can take it anymore,'” the complaint said. “In some cases, children tried to escape the facility.”
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