A bilateral agreement that allowed the Trump administration to send non-Guatemalan asylum-seekers to Guatemala was temporarily suspended on Tuesday as the government in Guatemala moved to block deportation flights from the U.S. in response to escalating coronavirus pandemic.

One day after announcing a nationwide shutdown in response to worldwide health crisis, Guatemala’s conservative government announced it would not be receiving asylum-seekers deported under the so-called “Asylum Cooperative Agreement.” The country’s foreign ministry also said U.S. flights of Guatemalan deportees that were scheduled on Tuesday were canceled.

The foreign ministry said the precautionary move would remain in place while “adequate” sanitary protocols were established, but it did not provide a timeframe. U.S. immigration officials, the foreign ministry added, are taking measures to ensure migrants with symptoms related to the coronavirus are not sent to Guatemala …continued .
[Source: CBS News]