Mexico deports migrants flown in on U.S. flights

GUATEMALA CITY — Central American migrants being expelled by the United States and flown deep into Mexico for deportation to their homelands drew concerns from U.N. agencies this week about the treatment of vulnerable migrants needing humanitarian protection.

Details of the highly unusual bilateral effort also began trickling out, with a Guatemalan official saying that Mexico is busing Guatemalans, Hondurans

and Salvadorans to remote border crossings with Guatemala after they arrive on U.S. government flights. Mexican immigration agency buses are unloading migrants from those flights at international crossings in El Carmen and El Ceibo. The latter is a particularly remote outpost where there is a small shelter, but little else.

The migrants were expelled by the U.S. after being denied a chance to seek asylum under a pandemic-related ban.

Guatemala is not participating in the joint campaign, said the official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

A spokesperson for Mexico’s immigration agency said they had no information.

Guatemala’s immigration agency confirmed in a statement later that groups of migrants had arrived at the border posts of El Ceibo and El Carmen. It did not mention the U.S. flights to southern Mexico.

The U.S. Homeland Security

Department confirmed last week that it had begun expelling migrants by air to Mexico under a pandemic-related authority that prevents migrants from seeking asylum at the border. Officials speaking on condition of anonymity said the flights include Central American families who are to be deported by Mexico to their homelands after landing.

Matthew Reynolds, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees representative to the U.S. and Caribbean, said returning asylum-seekers to their countries without proper screening for the dangers they are fleeing would violate international law.

“Individuals or families aboard those flights who may have urgent protection needs risk being sent back to the very dangers they have fled in their countries of origin in Central America without any opportunity to have those needs assessed and addressed,” Reynolds said in a statement.