Guatemala agrees to increase deportation flights from US by 40%: President

WASHINGTON

Guatemala agreed to increase by 40% the number of flights carrying Guatemala migrants as well as deportees of other nationalities from the US, that nation's president said Wednesday.

President Bernardo Arevalo praised relations with the US and said the two nations have challenges of migration, border security, and combat of transnational crime.

"For this reason, these challenges have also been at the core of the work agenda," Arevalo said during a media briefing with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Guatemala City. He added that a new migration model is needed to address the phenomenon of migration in a humanitarian and comprehensive manner.

"As part of this strategy, we have implemented the return-home plan that makes it possible. We have implemented the return home plan that makes it possible for our brethren to be dignified migrants in the United States," said Arevalo.

"In this framework, we have agreed to increase by 40% the number of flights of deportees, both on national returnees as well as deportees from other nationalities for their ulterior repatriation," he said. "The details of this process will be discussed in binational working groups."

Rubio thanked the Guatemalan president for his cooperation, which he said would continue to strengthen in order to intervene and prevent illegal migration.

"I'm very pleased to have signed that letter today in support of everything that we can do," he said.

The new top diplomat initiated his first foreign trips to Latin American countries, including Panama, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Guatemala.

The top issue remains illegal immigration into the US.