Latest news with #deportees
BBC News
7 days ago
- Politics
- BBC News
Focus on Africa Rwanda agrees migrant deal with the US
Rwanda has confirmed it will accept up to 250 migrants from the US, in a deal agreed with President Donald Trump's administration. Under the scheme the deportees would be given "workforce training, health care, and accommodation to jump start their lives in Rwanda", according to Rwandan government spokesperson Yolande Makolo. Human rights experts have raised concerns that removals to a nation that is not a migrant's place of origin - known as a third country - could violate international law. We'll hear analysis. Also, a report finds nearly a fifth of cancer drugs are defective in four African countries. And why the taste for camel milk is gaining popularity in Somalia and beyond! Presenter: Charles Gitonga Producers: Patricia Whitehorne, Yvette Twagiramariya and Sunita Nahar Technical Producer: Gabriel O' Regan Senior Journalist: Karnie Sharp Editors: Andre Lombard and Alice Muthengi `
Washington Post
05-08-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Rwanda accepts up to 250 deportees from the US under Trump's third-country plan
KIGALI, Rwanda — Rwanda agreed to accept up to 250 deportees from the United States under the Trump administration's expanding third-country deportation program , its government said Tuesday. The U.S. is seeking more deals with African countries to take deportees under President Donald Trump's plans to expel people who he says entered the U.S. illegally and are 'the worst of the worst.'
BBC News
27-07-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Guernsey WW2 deportee podcast shortlisted for award
A podcast telling the stories of Guernsey's last surviving World War Two deportees has been shortlisted for an Guernsey Deportees podcast is a six-part series featuring first-hand accounts from three people who were deported to the Biberach internment camp, in Nazi by Ollie Guillou, the main focus of the series covers the experiences of his grandmother, Jill Chubb, who was sent to Biberach as a three-year-old child. More than 1,000 residents across the Channel Islands were forcibly deported during the Nazi German podcast is nominated under the history section of the British Podcast Awards with the winners due to be announced at a ceremony in October. The podcast is produced through Mr Guillou's company OG Podcasts, which said it offered "rare insight into this little-known part of Channel Islands history"."With expert contributions from two leading historians and previously unheard testimonies, the series transports listeners to wartime Europe, capturing the trauma of internment and the enduring legacy of deportation on Guernsey families," it said.
Yahoo
18-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Venezuela releases 10 jailed Americans in deal that frees migrants deported to El Salvador by US
El Salvador Venezuela US Deportees CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela released 10 jailed Americans on Friday in exchange for getting home scores of migrants deported by the United States to El Salvador months ago under the Trump administration's immigration crackdown, officials said. The complex, three-country arrangement represents a diplomatic achievement for Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, helps President Donald Trump in his goal of bringing home Americans jailed abroad and lands Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele a swap that he proposed months ago. 'Every wrongfully detained American in Venezuela is now free and back in our homeland,' Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement in which he thanked Bukele, a Trump ally. Bukele said El Salvador had handed over all the Venezuelan nationals in its custody. Maduro described Friday as 'a day of blessings and good news for Venezuela' during his address to a gathering of agriculture producers. 'Today is the perfect day for Venezuela,' he said. 'Today has been a splendid day.' Venezuelans leave El Salvador's mega-prison Central to the deal are more than 250 Venezuelan migrants freed by El Salvador, which in March agreed to a $6 million payment from the Trump administration to house them in its notorious prison. That arrangement drew immediate blowback when Trump invoked an 18th century wartime law, the Alien Enemies Act, to quickly remove the men that his administration had accused of belonging to the violent Tren de Aragua street gang, teeing up a legal fight that reached the U.S. Supreme Court. The administration did not provide evidence to back up those claims. The Venezuelans have been held in a mega-prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, which was built to hold alleged gang members in Bukele's war on the country's gangs. Human rights groups have documented hundreds of deaths as well as cases of torture inside its walls. Lawyers have little access to those in the prison, which is heavily guarded, and information has been locked tight, other than heavily produced state propaganda videos showing tattooed men packed behind bars. Photos and videos released by El Salvador's government on Friday showed shackled Venezuelans sitting in a fleet of buses and boarding planes surrounded by officers in riot gear. One man looked up and pointed toward the sky as he climbed aboard a plane, while another made an obscene gesture toward police. In April, in a heated exchange of diplomatic letters with Venezuela, Bukele proposed exchanging the Venezuelans for the same number of what he called 'political prisoners' held by Maduro. It provoked a harsh response from Venezuelan authorities, who called his comments 'cynical' and referred to Bukele as a 'neofascist." Families say the Americans released are innocent The State Department office responsible for negotiating the release of American detainees posted a photo Friday evening of the newly released prisoners smiling for the camera inside an airplane bringing them home, some clutching an unfurled American flag. Among those released was 37-year-old Lucas Hunter, whose family says he was kidnapped in January by Venezuelan border guards from inside Colombia, where he was vacationing. 'We cannot wait to see him in person and help him recover from the ordeal,' his younger sister Sophie Hunter said. Venezuelan authorities detained nearly a dozen U.S. citizens in the second half of 2024 and linked them to alleged plots to destabilize the country. 'We have prayed for this day for almost a year. My brother is an innocent man who was used as a political pawn by the Maduro regime," said a statement from Christian Casteneda, whose brother Wilbert, a Navy SEAL, was arrested in his Caracas hotel room last year. Global Reach, a nonprofit organization that had advocated for his release and that of several other Americans, said Venezuelan officials initially and falsely accused him of being involved in a coup but backed off that claim. The three-country swap gives Maduro a boost The release of the Venezuelans, meanwhile, is an invaluable win for Maduro as he presses his efforts to assert himself as president despite credible evidence that he lost reelection last year. Long accused of human rights abuses, Maduro for months has used the migrants' detention in El Salvador to flip the script on the U.S. government, forcing even some of his strongest political opponents to agree with his condemnation of the migrants' treatment. Their return will allow Maduro to reaffirm support within his shrinking base, while demonstrating that even if the Trump administration and other nations see him as an illegitimate president, he is still firmly in power. Just a week ago, the U.S. State Department reiterated its policy of shunning Maduro government officials and recognizing only the National Assembly elected in 2015 as the legitimate government of the country. Signed by Rubio, the cable said U.S. officials are free to meet and have discussions with National Assembly members 'but cannot engage with Maduro regime representatives unless cleared by the Department of State.' Maduro's crackdown on dissent spurs detentions The Americans were among dozens of people, including activists, opposition members and union leaders, that Venezuela's government took into custody in its brutal campaign to crack down on dissent in the 11 months since Maduro claimed to win reelection. Besides the U.S., several other Western nations also do not recognize Maduro's claim to victory. They instead point to tally sheets collected by the opposition coalition showing that its candidate, Edmundo González, won the July 2024 election by a more than a two-to-one margin. The dispute over results prompted immediate protests, and the government responded by detaining more than 2,000 people, mostly poor young men. González fled into exile in Spain to avoid arrest. More than 7.7 million Venezuelans have migrated since 2013, when its oil-dependent economy came undone and Maduro became president. Most settled in Latin America and the Caribbean, but after the COVID-19 pandemic, many saw the U.S. as their best chance to improve their living conditions. The US and Venezuela have agreed on other releases Despite the U.S. not recognizing Maduro, the two governments have carried out other recent exchanges. In May, Venezuela freed a U.S. Air Force veteran after about six months in detention. Scott St. Clair's family has said the language specialist, who served four tours in Afghanistan, had traveled to South America to seek treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. Three months earlier, six other Americans whom the U.S. government considered wrongfully detained in Venezuela were released after Richard Grenell, Trump's envoy for special missions, met with Maduro at the presidential palace. Grenell, during the meeting in Caracas, urged Maduro to take back deported migrants who have committed crimes in the U.S. Hundreds of Venezuelans have since been deported to their home country, including 251 people, including seven children, who arrived Friday. Maduro's government had accused the Trump administration of 'kidnapping' the children by placing them in foster care after their parents were deported. ___ Tucker reported from Washington and Janetsky from Mexico City. Associated Press writers Matthew Lee and Seung Min Kim in Washington contributed to this report.
Bloomberg
18-07-2025
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Maduro to Receive Venezuela Deportees Jailed in El Salvador
Venezuela is set to receive a group of deportees freed from jail in El Salvador following an unexpected breakthrough in ongoing talks with the US. Roughly 250 Venezuelans, previously deported by the US to El Salvador in March, are set to arrive in Caracas Friday, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified to avoid reprisals.
