Costa Rican authorities raid US-run 'boot camp'

Authorities in Costa Rica took over an American-run boot camp-style academy yesterday, after claims that the troubled teenagers there were being abused. The move was the latest in a series of controversies over American institutions which put teenagers through "tough-love" regimes in foreign countries.

Police, child welfare and justice officials in Costa Rica carried out a raid on the Dundee Ranch academy, in the town of Orotina, following allegations that children were made to kneel for hours on concrete, kept in solitary confinement and forced to sleep on the floor.

Fernando Vargas, a Costa Rican prosecutor, said: "In Costa Rica, we don't even allow that kind of punishment for our prison inmates. We are conducting a criminal investigation for systematic violations of human rights, specifically the rights of the children."

About 30 of the 205 children at the school left after being told that they were free to go.

Ken Kay, the president of the network that oversees the schools, the Utah-based World Wide Association of Speciality Programmes and Schools, denied yesterday that any abuse had taken place.

Mr Kay said the "unfounded" allegations were made by a disgruntled former employee and three ex-students.

He said that 170 of the students had said they wanted to stay on, and arrangements were being made for those who wanted to leave.

The school was founded in 1991, and claims on its website that the lives of students who attend will be "forever enriched and redirected".

There has been a boom in such schools in recent years, with Mexico and Central America being popular locations. The academies there are not subject to the same regulations as institutions in the US, and it is harder for the teenagers to communicate with their parents.