MEXICO CITY — Mexico and Venezuela introduced Saturday that they’ve restarted repatriation flights of Venezuelans migrants in Mexico, the newest transfer by nations within the area to tackle a flood of individuals touring north to the US.
The transfer comes as authorities say a minimum of 10,000 migrants a day have been arriving on the U.S.-Mexico border, a lot of them asylum seekers. It additionally comes as a migrant caravan of 1000’s of individuals from throughout the area — largely Venezuelans — has trekked by way of southern Mexico this week.
The repatriation flights are a part of an settlement made between regional leaders throughout a summit in Mexico in October that aimed to hunt options for migration ranges that present few indicators of slowing down.
Mexico’s Ministry of Overseas Relations stated the 2 nations started repatriations with a flight on Friday and a second on Saturday in an effort to “strengthen their cooperation on migration points.” The assertion additionally stated the 2 nations plan to implement social and work packages for these repatriated to Venezuela.
“Mexico and Venezuela reiterate their dedication to deal with the structural causes that gas irregular migration within the area, and to attain a humanitarian administration of such flows,” the assertion learn.
Mexico’s authorities stated it beforehand carried out the same repatriation flight final Jan. 20 with 110 individuals.
Venezuelan authorities stated Saturday that 207 Venezuelans had landed in Caracas on one of many newest flights.
Gustavo Vizcaino, director of Venezuela’s migration company, stated the migrants got here on a “voluntary return flight,” a part of a 2018 program of President Nicolas Maduro’s authorities looking for to convey again Venezuelans who’ve fled the nation’s financial and political disaster.
As migration has soared lately, the U.S. authorities has pressured Latin American nations to manage the motion of migrants north, however many transit nations have struggled to take care of the portions of individuals.
This week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and different Biden administration officers had been in Mexico Metropolis to fulfill with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador concerning the excessive ranges of migrants touchdown on the U.S.-Mexico border.
López Obrador stated he additionally spoke concerning the subject in a cellphone name with Presient Joe Biden on Dec. 20.
“He requested — Joe Biden requested to talk with me — he was apprehensive concerning the state of affairs on the border due to the unprecedented variety of migrants arriving on the border,” Mexico’s chief stated. “He referred to as me, saying we needed to search for an answer collectively.”
López Obrador has stated he’s keen to assist, however in change he desires the U.S. to ship extra growth assist to migrants’ residence nations and to cut back or eradicate sanctions in opposition to Cuba and Venezuela.
Mexico’s president and different critics of American overseas coverage have cited the sanctions on Cuba and Venezuela as one of many root causes of excessive migration.