MIGRANT children at a United States border detention centre in Texas are living in “heartbreaking” conditions with diseases, dangerous food, neglect and sexual abuse, an investigation has revealed.

The BBC interviewed staff and children at the tented camp in the Fort Bliss military base in El Paso, where over 2,000 teenaged children who have crossed the US-Mexico border alone are waiting to be united with family in the US.

The children are divided into about 12 tents, with some cramming hundreds together, and only have an hour or two of recreation time outside.

A 15-year-old boy who has now been released said that he was fed uncooked meat, saying: “We couldn’t stand our hunger and we ate it, but we got sick from it.”

The boy, who released last month after 38 days in detention, said that he caught Covid-19 soon after arriving in the camp and became severely ill.

After he recovered, he was sent back to live in a crowded tent and became ill again.

Several tents have been set up just to accommodate the large numbers of sick children at the centre, which the children have nicknamed “Covid city.”

An employee, who remained anonymous because staff are banned from speaking, said that hundreds of children have tested positive for Covid-19.

Outbreaks of the flu and strep throat have also been reported since the camp opened in late March.

Some children in need of urgent medical attention have been neglected, the interviews revealed, including a child who was coughing up blood and was sent to lunch due to a three-hour wait to see a health professional.

At a camp training session, secretly recorded by a staff member, an employee voiced concern about staff sexually abusing children.

Another employee said that the Department of Homeland Security had spoken to staff about rape and were giving girls pregnancy tests.

There is a shortage of underwear, other clothing items and shoes in the camp, according to employees.

“It is heartbreaking to hear their stories and to see them very plainly suffering and to hear the same kinds of complaints over and over again about things that could be corrected so easily,” a staff member said.

The Department of Health and Human Services, which employs private contractors to help run the camp, said that it is “providing required standards of care for children such as clean and comfortable sleeping quarters, meals, toiletries, laundry, educational and recreational activities, and access to medical services.”