US, other diplomats end meeting on migrant issues

MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) — Officials from the U.S., Mexico and Central American nations have wrapped up a two-day meeting in Nicaragua at which they were expected to discuss the possibility of treating Central American migrants fleeing violence in their homelands as refugees.

Migration and interior department representatives who met in Managua declined to discuss the meeting after adjourning Friday.

The agenda focused on updating a 30-year-old declaration regarding the obligations that nations have to aid refugees.

Officials with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees had said earlier that they hoped a regional agreement on designating Central Americans migrants as refugees could be discussed at the meeting. Such a resolution would lack legal weight, but the agency said “the U.S. and Mexico should recognize that this is a refugee situation.”

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