CBS News reports that a number of children evacuated from Afghanistan have been classified as unaccompanied minors after entry into the U.S. and transferred into the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR).

In some cases, they were classified as unaccompanied because they were traveling with a non-parent adult relative. Under U.S. law, children in this instance are considered unaccompanied, even if the adult is a sibling. These children do appear to have been reunited with their families. But the report said some Afghan children have apparently traveled without any family members at all.

It’s unclear if that means they were alone. They’re now in ORR custody. Currently, officials have classified at least 34 Afghan children as unaccompanied. But CBS News reports that the number “will likely increase as thousands of Afghan evacuees arrive from American military bases in the Middle East and Europe where they are still being processed and subjected to security screenings.”

ORR has historically held mostly Central American unaccompanied minors (though it also held thousands of children stolen from parents under the previous administration’s family separation policy). The vast majority of them already have relatives in the U.S., CBS News reports. Typically, one of these relatives can become a sponsor (the previous administration also intentionally stifled this process).

But this may not be the case for Afghan children, which may prolong how long ORR holds them. The agency currently has nearly 15,000 children in its custody. It’s unclear if any Afghan children are at one of the mass, so-called emergency camps slammed by advocates, whistleblowers, and kids themselves for abhorrent conditions.

The Biden administration is currently facing a lawsuit over the Pecos and Fort Bliss facilities, which says it’s violating a decades-old court settlement dictating the treatment of children in U.S. custody. “Defendants have entrusted the care of vulnerable children to staff at [emergency intake sites] who lack experience caring for children and in some cases cannot even communicate with the children they are supervising,” court documents said.

That mirrored a whistleblower report that said the federal contractor paid to operate Fort Bliss near El Paso is a fire and water damage repair company with zero experience in child welfare. Per a second whistleblower report, Fort Bliss contractors have cumulatively been paid close to $1 billion in federal agreements. 

CBS News reports Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service President Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, among the leading advocates of Afghan refugees, urged that if Afghan children “do not have family members in the U.S., they should be placed in long-term foster care programs rather than large shelters.” The same obviously goes for Central American children and other unaccompanied minors.

While most Afghan children will gain permanent status through their families’ Special Immigrant Visa petition, if others remain unaccompanied, the report said they’ll need to gain status through the asylum avenues used by Central American children. 

“We know these children have been through so much. Our principal focus should be ensuring their safety and stability,” O’Mara Vignarajah said in the report. “We hope and pray that we may identify U.S. ties. There’s obviously no substitute for the love and support of family. We have a moral obligation to give these children what we would for our own.”