Now the messy part of handling refugees begins.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/blin...ry?id=79904710
But among the other challenges with reunification, officials are also concerned about child trafficking. There have been "multiple cases" of young girls being claimed as brides by adult Afghan men at one U.S. base in Wisconsin, according to an internal State Department situation report obtained by ABC News.
The State Department's task force requested "urgent guidance" after staff at Fort McCoy reported "multiple cases of minor females who presented as 'married' to adult Afghan males, as well as polygamous families," according to the Aug. 27 report.
Child marriage is not uncommon in Afghanistan, but it is illegal under U.S. law, and the State Department sanctions countries that don't crack down on it and other forms of human trafficking.
U.S. officials in the United Arab Emirates reportedly sent a cable to Washington to warn that some young Afghan girls had been forced into marriages in order to escape Afghanistan and reported being sexually assaulted by these older men, according to the Associated Press, which first reported about the Aug. 27 report.
The State Department declined to confirm whether there have been any cases of forced marriages among Afghan evacuees or other forms of human trafficking, but a spokesperson told ABC News last Friday that they take allegations "seriously" and are "committed to protecting vulnerable individuals globally."
"We are coordinating across the U.S. government and with domestic and international partners to detect potential cases of forced marriage among vulnerable Afghans at relocation sites and to protect any victims identified," they added in a statement…..
ABC News first reported on the concerns about human trafficking, especially of unaccompanied minors, when Qatari officials raised it amid a wider warning about the conditions at U.S. facilities in the country.
Qatar's assistant foreign secretary told U.S. officials there was a "danger of human trafficking in such circumstances and highlighted the cases of unaccompanied minors coming from Kabul," according to another internal situation report dated Aug. 23.