Amnesty Blasts Central American Governments Over Refugee Crisis Amnesty International
go to original October 17, 2016

Meet some of the Central Americans who are fleeing violence and abject poverty at home, only to endure shakedowns and abuse on their way to an uncertain future in the United States. (The Texas Tribune)

Governments in Central America are fueling one of the world’s least visible refugee crisis by failing to tackle rampant violence and sky-high homicide rates in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras which are forcing hundreds of thousands to flee, Amnesty International said in a new report.

The 25-page report, Home Sweet Home? Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador’s role in a deepening refugee crisis, shows how the three countries are failing to protect people from violence, and also failing to set up a comprehensive protection plan for deportees forced by countries such as Mexico and the USA to return to life-threatening situations.

Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International, said:

“El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras have become virtual war zones where lives seem to be expendable and millions live in constant terror at what gang members or public security forces can do to them or their loved ones.

“Although countries like Mexico and the USA are utterly failing to protect Central American asylum-seekers and refugees, it is high time that the authorities in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras own up to their role in this crisis and take steps to tackle the problems that force these people to leave home in the first place.”

Record-breaking brutality

Homicide rates in El Salvador have escalated dramatically in the past three years as people are increasingly caught up in ruthless fights between rival gangs trying to assert control over territories. Murder rates in Guatemala and Honduras are also among the highest on earth.

The United Nations has ranked El Salvador as one of the deadliest countries outside of a war zone, with more than 108 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2015. In Honduras the rate was 63.75 and in Guatemala it was 34.99 per 100,000 inhabitants.

Young people are the hardest hit by violence, with more than half of those killed in the three countries in 2015 under 30 years of age. Boys often join the gangs under duress, while girls are forced to become gangsters’ “girlfriends” and are often sexually abused.

Shop owners and bus drivers are routinely extorted and forced to pay “taxes” to the gangs controlling their area. Those who fail to follow the strict unwritten rules of conduct are often abused or killed.

Many young children across the three countries told Amnesty they had stopped attending school for fear of gang members and now have to spend all day at home.

...The relentless violence has led to a surge in asylum applications from Central American citizens in Mexico, the United States and other countries, reaching levels not seen since the region’s armed conflicts ended decades ago.

According to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the number of asylum applications from people coming from the three countries has increased more than six times in the past five years, particularly in neighboring countries and in the USA.

However, despite overwhelming evidence that many asylum-seekers face extreme violence and potentially death if they are not granted asylum, deportations from Mexico, the USA and elsewhere have increased. The number of Guatemalans, Hondurans and Salvadorans deported from Mexico increased by nearly 180% between 2010 and 2015.

Read the rest at Amnesty International

Related: Central America Turns Its Back on Hundreds of Thousands Fleeing ‘War-Like’ Violence (Amnesty International)

Related: Homeland Security: Central Americans Outnumber Mexicans Seized at U.S. Border (NBC News)

Related: The Refugee Crisis as Political Narcissism (Amnesty International)

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