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Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for Salvadorans Abroad,
Liduvina Magarin, told reporters that consulate officials were
using private attorneys to investigate the cases of alleged
abuse at shelters in the U.S. state of Arizona.
She did not provide further information.
The U.S. State Department did not reply immediately to a request
for comment, while an Immigration and Customs Enforcement
spokeswoman said the agency did not have family facilities in
Arizona.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which runs
shelters for unaccompanied children, did not respond immediately
to a request for comment.
More than 500 children out of over 2,500 separated from their
parents as part of U.S. President Donald Trump's "zero
tolerance" policy toward illegal immigration remained in the
care of the U.S. government by last week.
Many of the families had crossed the U.S.-Mexican border
illegally, while others had sought asylum. The separations were
in place from early May until Trump stopped the practice in June
in the face of intense global criticism.
El Salvador's government has registered 118 cases of separated
Salvadoran families that have been reunited but it does not know
how many more cases are pending.
(Reporting by Nelson Renteria; Additional reporting by Arshad
Mohammed and Eric Beech in WASHINGTON; Editing by Paul Tait)
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