The UN Refugee Agency reported last month that there were nearly 300,000 registered asylum seekers and refugees from the North of Central America at the end of 2017 — a 58 per cent increase from a year earlier. The region in question, which includes Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, is beset by violence associated with narcotics trafficking, official corruption, and gang proliferation, according to human rights groups. As the U.S. continues to carry out its “zero tolerance” policy at its southern border, we discuss what is driving migrants to flee their home countries.
Guests:
Philip Bump, national correspondent, Washington Post
Ioan Grillo, journalist based in Mexico City: author, “Gangster Warlords: Drug Dollars, Killing Fields and the New Politics of Latin America”
Karen Musalo, professor of law and director of Center for Gender and Refugee Studies, UC Hastings