UN urges Washington to keep doors open to asylum seekers after National Guard attack
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UN agencies also appealed for asylum seekers seeking access to the US to be given due process.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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GENEVA - UN agencies on Nov 28 appealed to Washington to continue allowing asylum seekers access to the country and to be given due process after US President Donald Trump vowed to freeze migration from “Third World” countries following an attack near the White House.
The comments mark a further escalation of migration measures that Mr Trump has ordered since two members of the West Virginia National Guard were shot
Investigators say the shooting was carried out by an Afghan national who entered the US in 2021.
Asked to respond to Mr Trump’s remarks, UN human rights office spokesman Jeremy Laurence told a Geneva press briefing: “They (asylum seekers) are entitled to protection under international law, and that should be given due process.”
UN refugee agency spokeswoman Eujin Byun echoed those remarks.
“When people who need protection arrive in their territory, they have to have a due process of asylum. And then they have to have access to territory,” she said, adding that the overwhelming majority of refugees are law-abiding members of the host community.
“So we really want to appeal at this point to the states who are hosting refugees and asylum seekers,” she said. REUTERS
