Colombian officials have halted a program redirecting migrants from the US-Mexico border region back to their home country, claiming their citizens endured “mistreatment” as well as last-minute flight cancelations.
The South American nation’s migration agency suspended around 1,200 flights that were expected to arrive from the US in the first week of May after scheduled arrivals for May 1 and May 2 were scrapped, according to a statement reviewed by Reuters.
“Before the arrival of the scheduled flights … both [days] were canceled by the North American immigration agencies,” said Fernando Garcia, the agency’s director.
“There are recurring complaints about the poor conditions in detention centers and mistreatment during flights, which represented a determining factor in the decisions adopted in the last few hours.”
Garcia also criticized the use of cuffs on the hands and feet of some migrants before boarding and during the flights.
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment.
Migration authorities in Colombia later announced flights will resume next week, according to the Spanish-language outlet Semana.
“The agreements that we have reached with the North American authorities are the following: The flights of returned people will resume as of next week. And two, two work groups were created with a human rights perspective that will develop two protocols that seek to guarantee the integrity of returned travelers,” Garcia said.
More than 125,000 Colombians were apprehended at the nation’s southern border last year, according to data from US Customs and Border Protection.
The influx reached all the way to small upstate New York towns like Jamestown, where at least 35 Colombian nationals arrived in the first month of 2023.
Just 6,200 Colombians attempted to enter the US in 2021.
President Biden on Tuesday authorized sending 1,500 active-duty troops to the southern border as his administration prepares to counter an expected migration spike coinciding with the end of Title 42 on May 11.
The pandemic-era public health policy allowed for the expulsion of migrants without hearing whether they have a credible claim of asylum.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced last week his department would ramp up repatriation flights to return prospective migrants to processing centers in Guatemala and Colombia while awaiting a final ruling on their asylum claims.
“This is a hemispheric challenge that demands hemispheric solutions,” he told reporters on April 27. “Let me be clear, our border is not open and will not be open after May 11.”
