More than 50,000 Guatemalans have been deported

Guatemala City, (EFE) – Guatemala has received a total of 56,349 citizens repatriated this year from the United States and Mexico, by land and air, according to official data from the Central American country.

From the United States, 24,974 Guatemalans have been flown back so far in 2022, on 223 flights from the North American country, according to data released Friday from the Guatemalan Migration Institute.

For its part, Mexico repatriated 9,051 Guatemalans by air and another 22,324 by land, for a total of 31,375 deported to the Central American country.

More than 10,000 minors have been deported

The list of 56,349 Guatemalans forced to return to their land this year includes just over 12,000 women and 10,000 minors, according to the Guatemalan Migration Institute.

A study released last March by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) found that 66% of deported minors in Guatemala return to homes without toilets, only to latrines and septic tanks.

Guatemalan deportation

The number of deportations from the US specifically is close to records recorded in the two years prior to the pandemic (2018 and 2019), when the US sent approximately 50,000 Guatemalans deported annually.

Many experts and official figures estimate that every year more than 300,000 Guatemalans attempt to reach the United States in search of better living conditions, including thousands of minors sent by their parents.

During 2021, Guatemala received a total of 63,304 people deported from Mexico and the United States, which is a 44% increase compared to the previous year, according to the Guatemalan Migration Institute.

The Guatemalan Ministry of Foreign Affairs estimates that about three million Guatemalans live in the United States, most of them irregularly.