A new report shows that after tens of thousands of young migrants illegally crossed the southern border in a desperate attempt to escape violence in Central America, some were then placed in the hands of child abusers and human traffickers by U.S. officials.

An alarming report recently published in The Associated Press found that over two dozen Central American children fleeing gang turfs and drug-fueled violence were placed in homes where they were subjected to sexual abuse, labor trafficking, starvation and neglect. Meanwhile, others were forced to work for little or no pay.

This occurred after U.S. officials implemented new rules in order to deal with the border surge of unaccompanied immigrant children over the last few years. Due to a lack of resources to house the record numbers of young arrivals, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) began relaxing its child protection policies to allow overwhelmed U.S. officials to quickly transfer the migrants from government shelters to more permanent housing. According to information obtained by the AP, the procedures were increasingly relaxed as minors began pouring into the country from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.

"First, the government stopped fingerprinting most adults seeking to claim the children," reports the AP. "In April 2014, the agency stopped requiring original copies of birth certificates to prove most sponsors' identities. The next month, it decided not to complete forms that request sponsors' personal and identifying information before sending many of the children to sponsors' homes. Then, it eliminated FBI criminal history checks for many sponsors," reports the news outlet.

The report also documents several of cases of abuse experienced by minors and young refugees after they were sent to live with sponsors. In one case, after a 14-year-old Honduran girl was sent to live with her stepfather in Florida, she was forced to work at cantinas among adult women who drank, danced and had sex with patrons. A 17-year-old Guatemalan placed with a friend's brother in Alabama was forced to work in a restaurant for 12 hours a day in order to supplement his rent payments. Another Honduran teen ended up running away from home after being placed with a sponsor in New York City who was physically abusive.

"These tragic situations do happen when there are bad actors involved, and that makes it incredibly difficult for the government to ferret them out," HHS spokesman Mark Weber said. "I know we learn from lessons and keep trying to improve the system to ensure the child is placed in a safe place, and I'm confident the vast majority of the kids are."

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