US Ending Accord That Sent Asylum Seekers Back

February 6, 2021 9:31 am

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) – Guatemala says the U.S. government is ending an arrangement that sent asylum-seekers who reached U.S. borders back to the Central American nation to seek protection there instead. The Guatemalan government said in a statement Friday it welcomed the decision to end the accord, known as a safe third country agreement. Only 20 of 939 Hondurans and El Salvadorans who have been turned back from the U.S. and flown to Guatemala decided to seek asylum there. With so many returning to their home countries instead, the policy instituted by former president Donald Trump became known as “deportation with a layover.”