UN assisted 625 American migrants to voluntarily repatriate in 2023

Panama City, May 12 (EFE).- The United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM) told EFE Friday that so far this year they have assisted 625 migrants from the American continent to voluntarily return to their countries, and 8,623 since 2018.

Of the more than 8,500 migrants who have taken advantage of the program, the majority returned to Honduras (5,204), El Salvador (1,411), and Guatemala (761), according to data provided by Jorge Andres Gallo, IOM Regional Communications Officer for Central America, North America and the Caribbean.

In addition, during the year 2022, this UN body assisted the voluntary return of 1,584 people, and so far this year it has responded to the request for support to return to their country of 625 migrants.

“These programs are created for those migrants who are outside their own country and who at some point are unable to or decide they do not want to continue with their migratory route,” Gallo said.

Many people who take advantage of the IOM Assisted Voluntary Return Program are migrants who failed to fulfill the so-called American dream of reaching the United States, and were stranded in third countries with no possibility of returning home.

The IOM helps migrants who take advantage of the program to take commercial flights after resolving the necessary legal procedures so that she can return regularly and safely to her country, sometimes even providing financial support with the purchase of tickets.

Migration to the US is precisely at a time of great expectation Friday, after the conclusion of what is known as Title 42, which allowed the hot expulsions of people on the grounds of the Covid-19 pandemic.

After the end of Title 42 on Thursday, the US now applies Title 8, the norm that has historically governed migration, and, in addition, Washington announced new measures that restrict access to request asylum on its southern border with Mexico . EFE

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