The US has struck up a deal with El Salvador in which the South American country has agreed to accept deportees and violent criminals.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with President Nayid Bukele to discuss the “most unprecedented, extraordinary” migration agreement.
Mr Rubio Said: “We can send them and he will put them in his jails. And, he’s also offered to do the same for dangerous criminals currently in custody and serving their sentences in the United States even though they’re US citizens or legal residents.”
Mr Bukele added that the system would include US citizens, not just migrants, and potentially involve his country’s infamous mega-prison Tecoluca (CECOT).
He wrote on X: “We have offered the United States of America the opportunity to outsource part of its prison system.
“We are willing to take in only convicted criminals (including convicted US citizens) into our mega-prison (CECOT) in exchange for a fee. The fee would be relatively low for the US but significant for us, making our entire prison system sustainable.”
CECOT is one of the largest prisons in the world in terms of the number of inmates, housing around 15,000, and there have been numerous accusations of human rights violations – including by the US in 2022.
The State Department still describes El Salvador’s prisons as “harsh and dangerous” on its website. It adds: “In many facilities, provisions for sanitation, potable water, ventilation, temperature control, and lighting are inadequate or nonexistent.”
Critics have already hit out at the plan, with Manuel Flores, secretary general of El Salvador’s left-wing Opposition party, accusing the US of using the country as its “backyard to dump the garbage”.
The new US-El Salvador deal is known as a “safe third country” agreement in which certain asylum seekers are not granted protection in the country where they applied for it.
After the meeting, Mr Rubio signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding to advance nuclear cooperation with El Salvador, which could lead to a more formal deal on the issue, as well as medicine.
He said: “Mass migration is one of the great tragedies in the modern era. It impacts countries throughout the world. We recognise that many of the people who seek mass migration are often victims and victimised along the way, and it’s not good for anyone.”