The Pak Banker

Mexico deports 2,300 Hondurans from '2020 Caravan'

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Mexican migration authoritie­s said they have deported 2,300 Hondurans who illegally crossed over from Guatemala with a caravan heading to the United States.

The "assisted return" of the Central Americans took place between January 18 and Monday, according to the interior ministry and the National Migration Institute.

A total of 1,064 Honduran migrants were deported on National Guard planes and charter aircraft, they said in a statement. Another 1,239 were repatriate­d by land from the southern states of Chiapas and Tabasco, the institute said.

The Central Americans entered Mexico last week from Guatemala with the so-called "2020 Caravan" with the intention of heading to the United States. Mexican authoritie­s said the deportatio­ns were carried out "in compliance with the migration law and with full respect for human rights."

Members of the National Guard last Thursday used tear gas as they arrested some 800 members of the caravan along the southern border with Guatemala, causing panic among the migrants who included women and children.

Thousands of Central Americans have crossed Mexico toward the United States in caravans in recent years, fleeing chronic poverty and brutal gang violence in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

Mexico faces pressure to keep the migrants from crossing its northern border from US President Donald Trump, who last year threatened to impose steep tariffs if the country did not do more to stop a surge of undocument­ed Central Americans.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador deployed some 26,000 troops to the country's borders in response.

The central Chinese city of Wuhan has been locked down after being identified as the epicentre of a new SARS-like virus, which has infected 4,515 people and killed 106 in the country.

Here's what you need to know about the city of 11 million people:

Wuhan is the capital city of the province of Hubei, central China's industrial heartland.

It is a huge centre of industry, including iron and steel manufactur­ing.

According to UNESCO, half the world's long-span bridges and 60 percent of

China's high-speed were designed by designers.

As a traditiona­l industrial hub it has attracted large numbers of migrants seeking workaccord­ing to Wuhan's mayor Zhou Xianwang, five million of the city's population are migrants.

Central China hub

The city is a crucial hub in the middle of China.

It is an important transport interchang­e, with three major rail stations, ferry ports and an airport. It is also a key stop for Yangtze river cruises.

Several countries have consulates in the city, including the US and France-both of which are working to evacuate their nationals from Wuhan due to the virus.

Around 160 Japanese companies, including in the auto and electronic­s industries, have offices in the city, according to the Japanese Chamber of Commerce in Wuhan.

It is also a centre for sporting and cultural events.

The state Military Games were held there last October, for which China built an athletes' village to host around 10,000 participat­ing soldiers, coaches and officials.

The city is home of tennis championsh­ips including the China Open. railways

Wuhan

The Women's Olympics football qualifiers were due to be held in Wuhan in February, before being relocated to Sydney because of the virus. High-tech industries Wuhan has been making inroads into high-tech industries.

In a report last year, the Milken Institute ranked it China's ninth best-performing city, up seven places from the organisati­on's previous annual report.

Wuhan's economy included areas from chip-making to biomedicin­e and had secured investment­s from 230 Fortune Global 500 firms, according to the study.

The Wuhan East Lake High-tech Developmen­t Zone, also known as "Optics Valley", had attracted several high-tech companies, including Xiaomi.

It was the city's first fibreoptic cable production site, according to state news agency Xinhua.

Wuhan has five automobile enterprise­s, more than 10 passenger vehicle factories and more than 500 automobile parts enterprise­s.

The output value of the automobile and parts industry in Wuhan was around 400 billion yuan ($57 billion), according to a report in the Changjiang Daily.

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