GUATEMALA CITY (AP) - Three former Guatemalan foreign ministers have asked the courts to bar the country’s president from entering into a possible “safe third country” agreement with the United States, days ahead of a planned visit to Washington announced Thursday by Jimmy Morales’ government.
Such an arrangement would require asylum seekers to apply for refuge in the first “safe” country they arrive in. That means Hondurans, Salvadorans and others who pass through Guatemala[1] would not be able to go directly to the U.S. border and make an asylum claim there.
Critics of such a deal note that Guatemala[2] shares similar conditions of poverty and gang violence that are driving people to flee the other two countries of Central America’s Northern Triangle.
Morales’ government said via Twitter that he is expected to meet Monday with U.S. President Donald Trump and also with other officials to discuss security, immigration and economic matters. Presidential spokesman Alfredo Brito said Morales’ visit is not for the purpose of signing a “safe third country” deal.
Wednesday’s court filing by the three ex-ministers was also signed onto by two former high-ranking diplomats and was made public Thursday.
It seeks an injunction arguing Morales would be misusing, a 1954 convention on simplified signing for international treaties to violate Guatemalan laws in response to pressure from Washington to slow a wave of mostly Central American migration toward the U.S. border.
It also notes that Morales has just six months left in office and argues that an agreement “would allow the current president of the republic to leave the future of our country mortgaged, without any responsibility.”
The injunction being sought also names Foreign Minister Sandra Jovel and Interior Minister Enrique Degenhart, who have been involved in immigration and security talks with the United States.
Human Rights Prosecutor Jordán Rodas has repeatedly urged Morales to respect migrants’ human rights and argues that making Guatemala[3] a “safe third country” would be “prejudicial for the country and its inhabitants due to the institutional precariousness of the Guatemalan state and the conditions of exclusion, severe poverty, malnutrition, unemployment, social conflict and public insecurity.”
The court filing also says that a possible agreement has not been made public, violating principles of government transparency.
Eric Schwartz, president of Refugees International, said such an agreement would contravene the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act and U.S. and international refugee law, which require asylum seekers to be transported only to safe places.
“A safe third country agreement with
Guatemala[4] would slam shut the door on people seeking to escape violence in parts of Central America and trap them in the very situations they are trying to flee,” Schwartz said.The only other “safe third country” agreement the United States has negotiated was with Canada in 2002....