El Salvador as one of three signatories to bilateral agreements with the U.S. government announced the country is not ready to receive asylum seekers from the United States.
El Salvador’s foreign minister Alexandra Hill Tinoco said her country will not accept any asylum seekers until it can offer them the necessary protection and support. Otherwise, it will be a violation of the bilateral agreement signed between the US and three Central American governments last year.
According to the deal, it would allow the U.S. to send asylum seekers from its Southwest border to instead apply for asylum in Guatemala, Honduras or El Salvador.
While Guatemala started receiving asylum seekers in November, both Honduras and El Salvador are expected to follow, Voice of America reports.
As the El Salvadoran foreign minister stressed on Wednesday, the country isn’t going to admit anyone seeking asylum until we as a country have the conditions and technical, financial and human capacity “to be able to give these people who are seeking asylum and sent to another country the best treatment”.
El Salvador remains a member of Asylum Cooperation Agreements
The so-called Asylum Cooperation Agreements are among the measures the U.S. government has taken to close the door to asylum seekers arriving at its southern border with Mexico.
Furthermore, Hill Tinoco said her government is at the point of determining the technical team that will meet with their U.S. counterparts to develop a plan of how it could work.
