Dozens of reports have emerged of the shocking and systematic abuse of asylum seekers by US border agencies.

NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) has obtained 160 internal reports with records on physical, sexual, and verbal abuse, as well as discriminatory behaviour and due process violations by border agencies between 2016 and 2021.

Using Freedom of Information Act laws, HRW found damning evidence implicating the Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the US Border Patrol (USBP), and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agencies

An HRW spokesperson described the abuses as “jaw dropping”.

“These internal government documents make clear that reports of grievous abuses – assaults, sexual abuse, and discriminatory treatment by US agents – are an open secret within DHS (Department of Homeland Security),” the spokesperson said.

The HRW also claims that the reports raised questions of whether serious allegations, including criminal conduct, are being effectively investigated

Among the instances of sexual abuse, a supervisory asylum officer in San Francisco reported to the DHS that a mother had reported that her young daughter had been forced to undress and was touched inappropriately by a CBP or a USBP officer after they were detained.

In another instance, a male asylum seeker was detained and taken to a detention centre where an officer demanded sexual favours for his release.

HRW said that the documented misconduct also took other forms, such as authorities potentially violating asylum seekers’ right to due process.

“The Department of Homeland Security appears to have normalized shocking abuses by its border agencies,” the spokesperson said.

US federal agents operating along the Mexican border have long been accused of misconduct and mistreatment of the migrants and asylum seekers attempting to enter the US. Conditions in detention centres can be harsh and detainees have frequently complained that they are kept so cold the holding pens are described as ice boxes.

Concerns about inappropriate behaviour by officers at the border made international headlines again in September when Border Patrol agents on horseback bearing what looked like whips were photographed grabbing at Haitian migrants.