US to house migrant children at Oklahoma army base [View all]
Source: Associated Press
June 12, 2019 — 12.31pm
Lawton, Oklahoma: The US government has chosen a military base in Oklahoma as the location for a new temporary shelter to house migrant children and is considering a customs port in southern New Mexico as another option as existing shelters are overwhelmed.
The Office of Refugee Resettlement said on Tuesday it's dealing with a dramatic spike in the number of children crossing the border without parents. The agency already has received referrals for nearly 41,000 kids so far this fiscal year, marking an increase of almost 57 per cent over the same period last year.
The facility at Fort Sill near Lawton, Oklahoma, would be capable of holding 1400 kids. Fort Sill served as a temporary emergency shelter for unaccompanied children in 2014 as a result of a migration surge at that time.
That's in addition to the shelter announced just last week in Carrizo Springs, Texas, where as many as 1600 teens could be held in a complex on government leased land near the US-Mexico border.
Read more: https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/world/north-america/us-to-house-migrant-children-at-oklahoma-army-base-20190612-p51wvw.html
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