BLIND EYE

138 Migrants Sent Back to El Salvador by the U.S. Were Killed

Human Rights Watch followed the case of 200 migrants from El Salvador turned back at the U.S. border. Nearly 140 were murdered and the rest were raped or tortured.

At least 138 migrants and asylum seekers from El Salvador who were deported by the United States have been killed after returning home, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch. The humanitarian group followed 200 migrant cases over a two year period and found that 138 of those deported were murdered and the rest were either raped or tortured—often by the same gangs they were originally fleeing from. The report, called Deported to Danger: United States deportation policies expose Salvadorans to death and abuse, also found that nearly 11,000 people were registered as missing during the decade. “The United States has to have known this was happening because the cases were publicly reported and more importantly because Salvadorans make it clear in asylum applications that this is their reality,” Elizabeth Kennedy, co-author of the report said in a statement. “But this reality is ignored or not believed by U.S. authorities.”

Editor’s Note: This cheat has been updated after incorrectly stating that the majority of migrants and asylum seekers from El Salvador who were deported by the United States have been killed, raped or tortured.