Colombia receives flight with 209 migrants returning from US

By Laura Gamba

BOGOTA, Colombia (AA) - A flight with 209 Colombian migrants coming from the US arrived in the capital Bogota on Wednesday after a controversy that arose last week over reports of their alleged mistreatment by US authorities.

“We provided assistance to 209 nationals in vulnerable conditions who arrived at El Dorado airport from the United States,” Colombia´s Foreign Ministry said on its Twitter account.

The general director of Colombia’s migration agency said last week that Colombia had suspended flights carrying hundreds of migrants who had been detained at the US-Mexican border due to “cruel and degrading treatment” by US officials.

"The use of restrictive elements such as hand and foot cuffs, even on women heads of household, has been one of the central aspects of the negotiations with the agencies to dignify the treatment of Colombians," Carlos Fernando Garcia, director of the migration agency, said on May 5.

Garcia also cited repeated flight cancellations by the US Department of Homeland Security.

The flights were part of a pilot plan called “mom returns” intended to send approximately 1,200 migrants, mostly women and children, to Colombia between May 1 and 7 before the termination of an emergency immigration restriction known as Title 42.

The policy, enacted in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, allowed officials to turn away asylum seekers on public health grounds.

The number of Colombians attempting to migrate to the US has soared in recent years, with more than 125,000 apprehended at the southern border in 2022, up from about 6,200 in 2021, according to US Customs and Border Protection.

Colombian authorities report that since November 2022, the number of flights of Colombians returning from the US has also increased. While a year ago, there were one or two flights each month, there are now around 20.

The Department of Homeland Security said in April that the US has “dramatically scaled up the number of removal flights per week.”