SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras: The United States on Monday sent 68 immigrants from Honduras and Colombia back to their countries, the first government-funded flight of what the Trump administration is calling voluntary deportations.
In the northern Honduran city of San Pedro Sula, 38 Hondurans, including 19 children, disembarked from the charter flight carrying $1,000 debit cards from the US government and the offer to one day be allowed to apply for legal entry into the US.
US President Donald Trump has promised to increase deportations substantially. Experts believe the self-deportation offer will only appeal to a small portion of migrants already considering return, but unlikely to spur high demand. The offer has been paired with highly-publicized migrant detentions in the US and flying a couple hundred Venezuelan migrants to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador.
Kevin Antonio Posadas, from Tegucigalpa, had lived in Houston for three years, but had already been considering a return to Honduras when the Trump administration announced its offer.
“I wanted to see my family and my mom,” said Posadas, who added that the process was easy.
“You just apply (through the CBP Home app) and in three days you’ve got it,” he said. The flight left Houston early Monday. “It’s good because you save the cost of the flight if you have the intention of leaving.”
Posadas said he hadn’t feared deportation and liked living in the US, but had been thinking for some time about going home. He said eventually he would consider taking up the US government’s offer of allowing those who self-deport to apply to enter the United States legally.
In a statement about the flight Monday, US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said, “If you are here illegally, use the CBP Home App to take control of your departure and receive financial support to return home. If you don’t, you will be subjected to fines, arrest, deportation and will never be allowed to return.”
Twenty-six more migrants aboard the flight were headed home to Colombia, according to a US Department of Homeland Security statement.
Honduras Deputy Foreign Minister Antonio García said the Honduran government would also support the returning migrants with $100 cash and another $200 credit at a government-run store that sells basic necessities.
Among the migrants arriving voluntarily Monday were four children who were born in the United States, García said.
García, who met the arriving migrants at the airport, said they told him that being in the US without documents required for legal immigration or residence had been increasingly difficult, that things were growing more hostile and they feared going to work.
Still, the number of Hondurans deported from the US so far this year is below last year’s pace, said Honduras immigration director Wilson Paz.
While about 13,500 Hondurans have been deported from the US this year, the figure stood at more than 15,000 by this time in 2024, Paz said.
He didn’t expect the number to accelerate much, despite the Trump administration’s intentions.
Some would continue applying to self-deport, because they feel like their time in the US is up or because it’s getting harder to work, he said.
“I don’t think it will be thousands of people who apply for the program,” Paz said. “Our responsibility is that they come in an orderly fashion and we support them.”
US sends 68 migrants back to Honduras and Colombia in first voluntary deportation
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US sends 68 migrants back to Honduras and Colombia in first voluntary deportation
- Experts believe the self-deportation offer will only appeal to a small portion of migrants already considering return, but unlikely to spur high demand
Greek coast guard search for 15 after migrant boat found adrift
- The two survivors reported that the vessel had become unstable due to bad weather and there was no means of getting shelter, food or water
ATHENS: Greek coast guard were on Monday searching for 15 people who fell into the water from a migrant boat that was found drifting off the coast of Crete with 17 bodies on board.
The 17 fatalities, all of them men, were discovered on Saturday on the craft, which was taking on water and partially deflated, some 26 nautical miles (48 kilometers) southwest of the island.
Post-mortem examinations were being carried out to determine how they died but Greek public television channel ERT suggested they may have suffered from hypothermia or dehydration.
A Greek coast guard spokeswoman told AFP that two survivors reported that “15 people fell in the water” after the motor cut out on Thursday, then the vessel drifted for two days.
At the time, Crete and much of the rest of Greece was battered by heavy rain and storms.
The two survivors reported that the vessel had become unstable due to bad weather and there was no means of getting shelter, food or water.
The vessel had 34 people on board and had left the Libyan port of Tobruk on Wednesday, the Greek port authorities said. Most of those who died came from Sudan and Egypt.
It was initially spotted by a Turkish-flagged cargo ship on Saturday, triggering a search that included ships and aircraft from the Greek coast guard and the European Union border agency Frontex.
Migrants have been trying to reach Crete from Libya for the last year, as a way of entering the European Union. But the Mediterranean crossing is perilous.
In Brussels, the EU’s 27 members on Monday backed a significant tightening of immigration policy, including the concept of returning failed asylum-seekers to “return hubs” outside the bloc.
The UN refugee agency said more than 16,770 asylum seekers in the EU have arrived on Crete since the start of the year — more than any other island in the Aegean Sea.
Greece’s conservative government has also toughened its migration policy, suspending asylum claims for three months, particularly those coming to Crete from Libya.
