safe third country agreement

noun

international law

: an agreement between governments stipulating that asylum seekers are required to make a claim for asylum in the country where they first arrive

If Mexico signed a safe third country agreement, Central American migrants would no longer be able to cross the U.S.-Mexico border to surrender to U.S. authorities and stay in the country while they await asylum proceedings.

—Rafael Bernal

Examples of safe third country agreement in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The accord with Canada is the only safe third country agreement the U.S. is currently enforcing. —Camilo Montoya-Galvez, CBS News, 23 Mar. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1993, in the meaning defined above