(Reuters) – Mexico sent 129 Haitian migrants by plane to their home country on Wednesday, officials said, after beginning flights to the capital of Port-au-Prince last week amid a jump in Haitian migrants moving to the U.S. border through Mexico.
The United States has cleared thousands of Haitian migrants from a camp at the Mexican border in Del Rio, Texas, in recent days, in part through expulsions to Haiti. Thousands of other migrants turned back to Mexico.
Mexico last week sent what it called a “voluntary return” flight to Haiti with 70 people, including 13 children.
Wednesday’s flight departed from the southern city of Tapachula near the border with Guatemala and was part of an agreement between the Mexican and Haitian governments, Mexico’s migration institute said in a statement.
The Fray Matias de Cordova human rights group expressed its opposition to the flight, saying in a tweet that deporting people to a country where the government cannot guarantee water, housing, food and safety would put lives at risk.
