{"id":5768,"date":"2020-01-21T14:38:35","date_gmt":"2020-01-21T09:08:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/?p=5768"},"modified":"2020-01-21T14:38:35","modified_gmt":"2020-01-21T09:08:35","slug":"us-guatemala-agreement-highlights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/us-guatemala-agreement-highlights\/","title":{"rendered":"US-Guatemala agreement: Highlights"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Relevance: Mains: G.S paper II: International affairs<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/US-gue.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5769\" src=\"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/US-gue.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"590\" height=\"283\" srcset=\"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/US-gue.png 590w, https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/US-gue-150x72.png 150w, https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/US-gue-300x144.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 590px) 100vw, 590px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Context:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In July 2019, the then President of Guatemala signed an asylum deal with the US.<br \/>\n\u2022 Alejandro Giammattei, Guatemala\u2019s new President, has not cleared his position on the pact, causing uncertainty over its future.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Safe third country agreement:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Under the \u201csafe third country\u201d agreement, migrants have to apply for asylum in the first country they land in.<br \/>\n\u2022 If they fail to do so and proceed to the second country, they can be sent back to the first country.<br \/>\n\u2022 The US first signed such an agreement with Canada in 2002.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>US-Guatemala agreement:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In 2019, the US administration signed \u201csafe third country\u201d agreements with the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras.<br \/>\n\u2022 This made it more difficult for refugees to seek asylum in the US.<br \/>\n\u2022 This agreement allowed the US to send asylum seekers from third countries to Guatemala.<br \/>\n\u2022 So far, Guatemala is the only country which has implemented the agreement.<br \/>\n\u2022 Unless migrants apply for protection in Guatemala before proceeding to the US, they are sent back to Guatemala.<br \/>\n\u2022 As of now (January 2020), the US had sent 158 El Salvadoran and Honduran asylum seekers to Guatemala since the agreement was signed.<br \/>\n\u2022 The US also plans to send migrants from other nationalities to Guatemala in the future.<br \/>\n\u2022 In the 2019 fiscal year, Guatemala was the largest source of migrants (more than 2.64 lakh persons) detained at the US border.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Criticisms:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A \u201csafe third country\u201d is supposed to mean a nation which is capable of offering protection to refugees.<br \/>\n\u2022 The Northern Triangle countries are known for high levels of crime, violence, and economic deprivation.<br \/>\n\u2022 The deal with Guatemala has been criticised, given the risk that migrants might face when they are sent back here.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Way ahead:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The US-Guatemala agreement was challenged at a US federal district court, with petitioners arguing that the pact violates US law.<br \/>\n\u2022 It has been contended that,<br \/>\n\u2022 Guatemala does not meet the definition of a \u201csafe third country\u201d under US asylum law and,<br \/>\n\u2022 The agreement does adequately protect asylum seekers from harm.<br \/>\n\u2022 Since President Trump came to power in 2016, the US has increasingly adopted policies aimed at deterring refugee migration.<br \/>\n\u2022 Under the \u2018Remain in Mexico\u2019 policy, which came into force in January 2019, 55,000 asylum seekers to the US have been sent back to Mexico to wait out their asylum cases in that country.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Relevance: Mains: G.S paper II: International affairs Context: In July 2019, the then President of Guatemala signed an asylum deal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3530,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[123,18],"tags":[392],"class_list":["post-5768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs","category-general-studies-ii","tag-union-public-service-commission-upsc"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5768"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5768\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5770,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5768\/revisions\/5770"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}