That followed similar accords with El Salvador and Guatemala, the two other countries that form Central America’s “Northern Triangle”. US officials claim their hardline policies will protect migrants from the long and perilous journey through Central America and Mexico. As a scheme for keeping asylum seekers as far away from the US as possible it could be effective – and with very harmful consequences. While the United States handled hundreds of thousands of asylum applications last year, El Salvador received just 20. But Long warned his project to bar asylum seekers and migrants would ultimately fail.

Source: The Guardian September 27, 2019 14:15 UTC