The Stream

Is the US deporting Salvadorans to their deaths?

A new Human Rights Watch report highlights violence and abuse that many deportees face.

On Wednesday, February 5 at 19:30 GMT: 
The US government’s hardening immigration policy is putting thousands of deported El Salvadorans at risk of death or abuse, according to the New York-based rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW).

From 2014 – 2018, the US and Mexico deported about 213,000 people back to El Salvador, a new HRW report says.  The number of deportations increased more than 40 percent in 2019 compared to 2018.

For many deportees readjusting to life in El Salvador is a struggle, particularly for those returning to a country with which they have had little if any connection since their birth.  And it can be that lack of connection that puts them in harm’s way. Human Rights Watch identified more than 200 cases of violence aimed at deportees, 138 of those were killed.

So what can be done to prevent asylum seekers from being deported back to danger and what help is available when they are? We’ll pose those questions to our panel, including one of the authors of the HRW report, on this episode of The Stream. Join the conversation.

 

On this episode of The Stream, we speak with:

Alison Parker, @alisonHRW
Co-author of “Deported to Danger” by Human Rights Watch
hrw.org

 

Oscar Monjaraz
Deportee

 

Will Gomez
Pastor

Read more: 
El Salvador: Deportees Welcome – Al Jazeera 
When death awaits deported asylum seekers – The Washington Post

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