MEXICO CITY – Mexico deported 126 Venezuelan migrants who did not have proper permission to be in the country, the National Migration Institute (INM) said on Saturday.
The 117 men and nine women were not able to prove their legal entry into Mexico, an INM statement said. The migrants were transported from an immigration station in the city of Tapachula, near the Mexico-Guatemala border, to an airport where they boarded a flight early Saturday morning.
The INM has so far this year deported 343 Venezuelan migrants, the institute said.
An estimated 6 million Venezuelans have fled economic collapse and insecurity in their home country in recent years, according to United Nations figures. Many have settled in other South American countries but some have traveled north.
(Reporting by Cassandra Garrison; Editing by Daniel Wallis)