Kids in Need of Defense, the largest U.S.-based nonprofit serving migrant children, urged the Biden administration to deploy HHS caseworkers to airports and military sites receiving Afghan evacuees to expedite the release of unaccompanied minors. The minors should also have access to lawyers and child advocates, the group said.
Wendy Young, the group’s president, noted that unaccompanied Afghan children arriving in the U.S. and other countries may have lost their family members or been separated from them during the chaotic evacuations from Kabul.
“What the United States and other nations do now will determine the trajectory of these children’s lives,” Young said. “The United States has a responsibility to get this right.”