U.S. says no plans to send asylum seekers to remote Guatemalan regions

GUATEMALA CITY/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government said yesterday that it had no plans to send asylum seekers to remote regions in Guatemala after the Central American country floated the plan during negotiations for a bilateral migration agreement this week.

The two countries are finalising a deal signed over the summer that would allow the United States to send asylum seekers who arrive at the U.S.Mexico border, but who passed first through Guatemala on their journey, back to Guatemala to seek refuge there instead. Most of the migrants subject to the agreement would be from countries in the region, but further south like Honduras and El Salvador.

Guatemala’s Interior Minister Enrique Degenhart, who met officials from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Friday, told Reuters the government was considering accepting arriving asylum seekers at remote airports far from the country’s capital of Guatemala City. The proposal raised concerns among immigration advocates who fear for the safety of vulnerable migrants in places that are potentially far from services. The proposal was first reported by the Washington Post.

“All airports are being analysed,” Degenhart said in a phone interview with Reuters. “There are some that’ll qualify but others that won’t.” He declined to give further details on the scope of the agreement before concluding discussions with his U.S. counterparts.