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Sexual Abuse Widespread at Krome Detention Center, Miami: Refugee Women and Immigrants Subjected to

New York, NY

New York, NY- October 5, 2000—In a report released today, the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children documents widespread sexual, physical and emotional abuse of detainees held at the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s Krome Service Processing Center in Miami.

"Detainees told us of sexual abuse ranging from rape to molestation and harassment," says Wendy Young, Director of Government Relations for the Women’s Commission and author of the report Behind Closed Doors: Abuse of Refugee Women at the Krome Detention Center. "At least 15 male INS officers were involved. Women described an atmosphere of fear and intimidation."

The Women’s Commission visited the Krome detention center in March 2000 and again in September, following reports of widespread misconduct. The Women’s Commission has been at investigating conditions of detention for women asylum seekers in the United States since 1995.

Women at Krome reported that often officers used the women’s lack of immigration status as an inducement to participate in sexual activities. They reported that officers would make false promises that they could release a woman from detention if she participated in sexual acts. In other cases, detainees said that deportation officers threatened them with deportation or transfer to a county prison if they resisted a guard’s sexual advances or if they complained.

Complaints about severe overcrowding, prolonged detention, impediments to legal representation, verbal and physical abuse, lack of proper medical care and other abuses at Krome are not new and the facility has been the subject of federal investigations of alleged abuses every few years going back to 1986. Allegations of sexual misconduct are now being investigated by three agencies of the Department of Justice: the Office of the Inspector General, the FBI and the U.S. Attorneys Office. Two officers from Krome have been convicted by a grand jury.

"The INS must immediately regain control of Krome," says Young. "Strong measures must be taken to ensure that staff who have participated in illegal and unethical behavior are either criminally prosecuted or subject to appropriate disciplinary action, including dismissal. Accountability must be built in at every level of the INS from frontline staff working directly with detainees all the way up to the INS in Washington."

The Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children is the only organization in the United States dedicated solely to speaking out on behalf of refugee women and children. It provides expertise in the areas of reproductive health, protection and participation, asylum issues and refugee children and adolescents, Currently there are almost 50 million refugees and internally displaced civilians worldwide--80 percent of whom are women and children.

The Women’s Commission was founded in 1989 under the auspices of the International Rescue Committee, the leading U.S. nonsectarian voluntary agency devoted to the cause of refugees.