Humanitarian group Human Rights Watch has released a devastating new report that tracks migrants and asylum seekers who were deported back to El Salvador by the United States. The country has struggled to stop gang violence, and many of the migrants that have come to the United States have legally sought asylum.
From the report, “Of the estimated 1.2 million Salvadorans living in the United States who are not US citizens, just under one-quarter are lawful permanent residents, with the remaining three-quarters lacking papers or holding a temporary or precarious legal status.”
The group tracked more than 200 cases of individuals who were deported. Of those, 138 were murdered when they were forced to return. Many of the others were tortured or raped.
HRW writes that the findings of the report “shows that, as asylum and immigration policies tighten in the United States and dire security problems continue in El Salvador, the US is repeatedly violating its obligations to protect Salvadorans from return to serious risk of harm.”
You can see the full report here.
