Mexico sends 70 Haitian migrants back to Port-au-Prince by plane

Mexico sent a group of 70 Haitian migrants, including 13 children, on a plane to Port-au-Prince, in which what the government said was part of an "assisted voluntary return" to Haiti. In a joint statement on Wednesday, Mexico's Foreign Minister said the flight was part of an agreement reached between Mexican and Haitian authorities to manage the increasing number of Haitian asylum seekers.

The ministries in a statement added that the migrants were in Mexico City and the nearest state to Mexico and in the states of Hidalgo and Tabasco.

The announcement comes after a group of more than 14,000 migrants, most of them Haitians, crossed the Rio Grande River from Mexico to Del Rio, Texas, where they set up a makeshift camp under a bridge.

US President Joe Biden's administration has rejected more than 4,600 Haitian asylum seekers in Haiti on 43 flights, a US Department of Homeland Security spokesman told media on Wednesday.

Thousands of more people are being held at US customs and border patrols, where most are waiting for expressions.

The expulsions have gathered widespread condemnation from immigration lawyers as well as members of Biden's own Democratic Party, who argue that asylum seekers should not be forced to return to a politically unstable country, followed by violence and natural disasters.

Human rights groups and a top UN expert have warned that the expulsions could violate international law.

Most migrants were extradited under the so-called "Title 42", a provision invoked by former President Donald Trump, who cited the coronavirus pandemic as a reason to block asylum seekers from seeking protection at the country's borders.

An estimated 8,000 asylum seekers fear deportation to Haiti back from the US and Mexico, where officials have urged them to comply with asylum applications in the south of the country.

Thousands more have gathered in the city of Tapachula, which borders Guatemala, but many have been waiting months for responses to their asylum applications.

The Mexican National Refugee Agency is struggling with rising demand that has overwhelmed its capacity. The Reuters news agency reported on Tuesday that about 1,000 migrants had gone to a sports stadium in Tapachula to request appointments for asylum.

Chenet, 38, a Haitian asylum seeker who did not give Reuters his first name, said he paid 6,000 pesos ($ 300) to someone in Tapachula to secure an appointment without realizing it was a fraud.

"They say there is nothing at the moment; there are no appointments," he said.

The Mexican Commission on Refugee Assistance (COMAR) said people with appointments by October 20 and who did not verify their appointments before Thursday would lose their jobs.