Guatemala temporarily suspends flights of deportees from U.S.

Guatemala's foreign ministry said on Tuesday it had temporarily suspended flights of deported Guatemalans and other nationalities that had been being returned from the United States under an asylum agreement with Washington.

The ministry said in a statement it had suspended flights of Guatemalans until adequate sanitary protocols could be established in the Central American country that would permit the safe return of the people to their places of origin. Under the asylum agreement with the United States, Guatemala also receives some returned Hondurans and Salvadorans.

U.S. authorities had provided information on additional sanitary measures to ensure that no deportees with symptoms of coronavirus were sent back, the ministry said.