Tasnim News Agency: “Central Americans Are Fleeing Violence in Higher Numbers: UNHCR”
A new assessment from the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR) calls into question Donald Trump’s decision to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for more than 300,000 legal immigrants living in the United States, including from Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. As part of their decision, The Trump Administration cited that these countries have recovered from the aftermath of natural disasters and violence that originally prompted the TPS designation.
However, the assessment from UNHCR shows that violence in Central America is actually on the rise. This only reinforces the concerning recent reports detailing how diplomatic professionals were advising the Department of Homeland Security against the termination of TPS due to worsening country conditions.
Read the excerpted article here:
“More than 294,000 asylum seekers and refugees from the North of Central America were registered globally as of the end of 2017, an increase of 58 percent from a year earlier,” UNHCR said in a statement on Tuesday.
“This is 16 times more people than at the end of 2011,” it added.
“The vast majority of those fleeing El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras are seeking refugee protection to the north in Belize, Mexico, and the United States, or to the south in Costa Rica and Panama.”
[…]
“The administration has also ended TPS for some 200,000 Salvadorans, 2,500 Nicaraguans and 55,000 Haitians.
“TPS provides protections for people unable to return to their homes out of safety concerns, usually stemming from natural disasters or wars.”
