Back to Central America

U.N. Quietly Helping Ship Migrants in Mexico Back to Central America, Activists Furious - Washington Sentinel

The United Nations has quietly begun helping to send back to Central America the tens of thousands of illegal migrants that made their way to northern Mexico and migrants "rights" activists are furious.

A United Nations agency has begun removing migrants via bus and air with funding provided by the U.S. Department of State, according to the Los Angeles Times. Reporting from Juarez, Mexico, the Times said that buses chartered by the U.N.'s International Organization for Migration were loaded with illegal immigrants from Guatemala and then they were put on the road home.

The program, called Assisted Voluntary Return, is open to those migrants who decide that they have waited long enough to get into the U.S. only to be rejected, so they are ready to go back

The program is funded by $1.65 million in American taxpayer cash and is expected to expand to other Mexican cities.

"We'll continue as long as there is a need and people are seeking assistance returning home," said Christopher Gascon, the U.S.'s chief of mission in Mexico.