Migration

Afghan national granted protection in the US is one of dozens of people deported to the war-torn Central African Republic.

The administration of United States President Donald Trump has deported dozens of people to the Central African Republic, including an Afghan whose family members collaborated with the US military, his lawyer and advocacy groups said.

The Afghan man, who is in his early 20s, was granted protection against deportation to Afghanistan by a US judge due to fears of persecution by the Taliban, his lawyer, Alma David, said.

Advocacy organisations AfghanEvac, a US-based group that assists Afghan allies, the American Civil Liberties Union, and Human Rights First also confirmed his deportation.

His family in Afghanistan had received threats from the Taliban, which governs the country, because of his brothers’ involvement in supporting the US military, according to court documents seen by The Associated Press news agency.

One of the Afghan man’s brothers lives in the US and served in the Afghan National Army, which collaborated with the US military before the Taliban seized power in 2021, David said.

Another brother was a pilot trained by the US and later killed by the Taliban, she added.

According to The New York Times, which identified the Afghan man only as Khalil, his sister and father also worked alongside US forces.

The deportation flight landed in the Central African Republic’s capital, Bangui, on Saturday, carrying 12 Afghans and eight Iranians, as well as several people from Nepal and Nicaragua, said Savi Arvey, director of policy, refugee and immigrant rights at Human Rights First.

It was the third deportation flight from the US to the Central African Republic this year, according to the rights organisation.

Under a series of often quietly struck agreements, the Trump administration has sent thousands of people to third countries where they have no ties as it pushes ahead with an immigration crackdown.

The latest US State Department Travel Advisory warns citizens not to travel to the African country for any reason, citing risks of unrest, crime, kidnapping, health, and “terrorism”.

The social media personality had been detained by immigration agents at an airport in New Orleans earlier in the week.

Milo Yiannopoulos, a far-right provocateur who feuded with other right-wing content creators, has been deported to the United Kingdom, according to authorities in the United States.

On Saturday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed Yiannopoulos’s removal a day earlier.

“He chose to overstay his welcome in violation of our nation’s laws,” the department posted on social media, in announcing Yiannopoulos’s arrest.

According to the department’s statement, Yiannopoulos was apprehended by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) while travelling through the Louis Armstrong New Orleans international airport in Louisiana on Thursday.

He entered the country through New York City in May 2019. After Yiannopoulos missed an immigration hearing earlier this year, a judge issued a final order for his removal on July 22.

In announcing Yiannopoulos’s detention on Friday, the DHS encouraged noncitizens who overstayed their visas to self-deport.

“We encourage every person here illegally to take advantage of this offer and reserve the chance to come back to the U.S. the right legal way to live the American dream,” the department wrote. “If not, you will be arrested and deported without a chance to return.”

Yiannopoulos has not publicly weighed in on his deportation, with his usually active social media account on X staying silent since his detention.

But Yiannopoulos had formerly been an outspoken supporter of US President Donald Trump and the mass deportation campaign the Republican leader had pledged to undertake during his second term.

“Zero immigration for the next 20 years. No ifs, no buts,” Yiannopoulos wrote in a social media post last year.

Known for his attacks on feminism, immigrants and Muslims, Yiannopoulos is believed to have been in New Orleans this week as part of his work with musician Ye, formerly known as Kanye West.

Far-right activist and Islamophobe Laura Loomer, a Trump ally, has celebrated Yiannopoulos’s removal after calling for his deportation.

She has often used her social media platform to call on the Trump administration to take action against specific individuals. Loomer and Yiannopoulos have been feuding for years.

“Milo is going to be deported back to the UK where he can live among the Muslims he has recently chosen to embrace,” Loomer said in a social media post on Friday. “Today is a great day for America.”

Loomer also called for leftist streamer Hasan Piker, who has been critical of Israel, to be deported as well. Piker, however, is a US citizen.

“DEPORT HASAN PIKER AND HIS TURKISH MOM NEXT!” she wrote.

An ICE official tells Al Jazeera the British political commentator overstayed his visit in the US and will be removed.

Milo Yiannopoulos, a far-right British commentator known for previously being a vocal supporter of United States President Donald Trump, has been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

A spokesperson for the US Department of Homeland Security told Al Jazeera that Yiannopoulos was taken into custody at the Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans, Louisiana, on Thursday.

He allegedly overstayed his legal authorisation to remain in the US after entering the country through New York City on May 14, 2019.

“Yiannopoulos was issued a final order of removal by an Immigration Judge on July 22, after failing to show up for his immigration hearing,” the spokesperson wrote on Friday. “He will remain in ICE custody pending removal.”

The Department of Homeland Security also posted a photo to social media that appeared to be a mugshot of the 41-year-old conservative firebrand who, in June 2025, called on the Trump administration to “deport millions and millions and millions of people”.

In the post, the department warned that those detained for overstaying their visit would be “arrested and deported without a chance to return”.

Online records do not specify which ICE detention facility is currently holding Yiannopoulos. Instead, it refers “family members and legal representatives” to contact the ICE field office in Alexandria, Louisiana, for additional details.

Reports indicate Yiannopoulos was in New Orleans for a concert by the musician Ye, formerly known as Kanye West. TMZ was the first to report Yiannopoulos’s detainment.

Laura Loomer, a top Trump ally known for spreading conspiracy theories, appeared to take credit for Yiannopoulos’s detainment, calling it a “great day for America”.

She also denounced Yiannopoulos’s work with former US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Trump supporter-turned-critic.

“I was the first person to report on the fact that Milo was in the US illegally where he incited violence against President Trump and worked for Marjorie Traitor Greene,” Loomer wrote on the social media platform X. “When Milo called for me to be assassinated, I reported him to ICE and FBI.”

Loomer has publicly sparred with Yiannopoulos for years. He previously exposed what he purported to be Loomer’s mental health struggles in a September 2024 post, claiming she had been involuntarily committed to psychiatric facilities.

Yiannopoulos, known for his online trolling and anti-Islamic postings, was permanently banned by X’s predecessor, Twitter, in July 2016. His account was reinstated when Elon Musk took over the company.

After that, Yiannopoulos returned to the platform with a series of inflammatory posts, including one that called the “Muslim world functionally retarded”.

More recently, the 41-year-old founded a Los Angeles-based talent management called Tarantula that offers, in its own words, “unrivalled connections, capital and expertise” to a host of celebrities and public figures.

The site lists a number of controversial “past and present” clients like Trump, Ye, convicted fraudster “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli and rapper Azealia Banks.

Bogota, Colombia – Opposition politicians and migrant communities in Colombia have decried President Abelardo de la Espriella’s plan to launch a deportation campaign against foreign nationals living irregularly in the country.

De la Espriella unveiled the crackdown during a security council meeting on Sunday, ordering police to begin operations as soon as this week.

The policy is expected to primarily affect Venezuelans, by far the largest migrant population in Colombia.

It marks a stark departure from measures under previous administrations, which largely sought to create legal immigration pathways for those fleeing hardship in neighbouring Venezuela.

“I will not accept any illegal immigrants, wherever they come from,” said de la Espriella in a video shared on the social media platform X on Sunday evening. “They will have to leave and be deported. It is a political decision I am taking responsibility for.”

The far-right president – who was inaugurated earlier this month – said his government will first target those “committing crimes” and then those whose “status has not been regularised”.

While de la Espriella did not address any specific nationalities, some 95 percent of Colombia’s migrant population are Venezuelan, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), an intergovernmental group.

Approximately 2.8 million Venezuelans reside in Colombia, making it home to the largest Venezuelan migrant community in the world.

While nearly 2 million have a Temporary Protection Permit (PPT) authorising them to live in the country, an estimated 500,000 lack permission to be in Colombia, according to migration authorities. Many of them were granted temporary permits that have since expired.

De la Espriella, a political outsider, pledged to tackle illegal immigration during his presidential campaign, his first bid for elected office.

The former lawyer has aligned himself with right-wing leaders such as US President Donald Trump, who initiated his own deportation campaign in the United States.

De la Espriella’s declaration on Sunday triggered uproar among opposition leaders, including leftist Senator Ivan Cepeda, who narrowly lost the presidency in a June run-off. He leads the Historic Pact, the largest party in Colombia’s Congress.

“Today, de la Espriella has added xenophobia to all the authoritarian, despotic and discriminatory traits of his policies,” Cepeda wrote on X.

Cepeda then accused de la Espriella of failing to protect Colombian deportees from the United States.

“De la Espriella is bold enough to target migrants from Latin American countries in Colombia, yet cowardly when it comes to protecting our fellow migrants in the United States,” he said.

Maria del Mar Pizarro, a Historic Pact congresswoman, also denounced de la Espriella’s plans in an interview with Al Jazeera. She questioned whether the deportation campaign was about security or discrimination.

“Foreign nationals who commit crimes must be prosecuted,” she said. “But persecuting and deporting someone — simply because their immigration status is not in order — is populism, not security.”

Given the porous nature of the roughly 2,200-kilometre (1,370-mile) land border between the two countries, Pizarro added that there is little to stop deported Venezuelans from returning to Colombia.

“Without border control, legalisation and intelligence efforts against criminal gangs, the government pays for the deportation, and the problem returns,” she said.

Venezuelan diaspora fears policy implications

De la Espriella has announced that the deportation operation will begin with a pilot programme in the coastal city of Barranquilla, which is home to an estimated 182,000 Venezuelans.

Members of the Venezuelan diaspora in the city, however, fear that the crackdown will feed into stereotypes about their community.

“We must not confuse irregular immigration status with criminality. They are two completely different things,” said Juan Carlos Viloria Doria, the vice president of Venezuelans in Barranquilla, a migrant advocacy organisation.

While he backed the need to prosecute those who commit crimes, he said the law should apply to everyone “independent of nationality”.

Viloria also noted that many migrants could face political persecution if deported back to Venezuela.

Experts at the United Nations and other human rights watchdogs have accused the Venezuelan government of “repressive” activities, including the arbitrary detention and torture of political dissidents.

“We have people who left because they believed their lives, their freedom, or their safety were at risk,” Viloria explained. “Added to that are the economic, social and humanitarian conditions that Venezuela still faces.”

Despite being home to the world’s largest petroleum reserves, Venezuela has suffered from a plummeting gross domestic product (GDP) and rampant hyperinflation in the past decade.

Critics of the governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) say it has presided over chronic economic mismanagement, funnelling oil profits to a small elite while underfunding public services.

The Venezuelan government, however, argues it has been constrained by US sanctions, which have affected oil revenue, trade and foreign investment.

Faced with Venezuela’s economic crisis and threats of political persecution, some 7.6 million citizens have left the country since 2014, according to the UN.

Ronald Vergara moved to Colombia in 2016 and founded Fundacion Hermanos Caminantes, a nongovernmental organisation that supports recently arrived migrants. He fears how de la Espriella’s crackdown may harm an already struggling community.

“It would truly be inhumane to deport people who came here to survive and to work – decent people, who account for the majority of us,” he told Al Jazeera.

Despite living in Colombia for 10 years, Vergara was only granted a Temporary Protection Permit a few months ago, due to delays in the system. He said that residing in Colombia without papers limited his opportunities.

“I always felt excluded. I was never able to get a job that paid a decent wage,” he explained.

Vergara also said he has seen cases where those who had a Temporary Protection Permit lost their legal status because their identity card was lost or stolen. Thousands of others are still waiting to be granted their papers, including his son.

“He’s 17 and about to graduate from high school, but he can’t graduate without the PPT,” said Vergara.

A departure from political tradition

De la Espriella’s announcement heralds a new era of anti-immigrant politics in Colombia, according to experts.

Since the Venezuelan migration crisis began, successive administrations in Bogota have responded by offering new arrivals assistance and opportunities for integration.

In 2017, for instance, then-President Juan Manuel Santos introduced a two-year temporary permit for Venezuelans called the Special Permit of Permanence and bolstered humanitarian assistance on the border.

His successor, right-wing leader Ivan Duque, severed relations with Caracas in 2019, closing the land border to vehicular traffic and suspending air travel. But he still offered migrants the chance to remain in Colombia by rolling out the PPT in 2021.

Most recently, Colombia’s first left-wing president, Gustavo Petro, presided over a thaw in bilateral relations with Venezuela and adopted a pro-migrant stance. His presidency ended this year, with de la Espriella’s victory.

Ronal Rodriguez, a spokesperson at the Venezuela Observatory, a research centre at Bogota’s Rosario University, said de la Espriella’s policies interrupt a years-long trend.

“Everyone had a favourable stance toward migration and, in particular, used language that promoted integration,” Rodriguez explained.

“Unfortunately, I believe that this ends – for the moment – with what President Abelardo de la Espriella is now saying.”

While the president has pledged a crackdown on irregular migrants, the full details of his deportation platform have yet to be revealed.

For Rodriguez, de la Espriella may yet back down from his bold declarations.

He hopes that the president will “reconsider and return to the Colombian government’s policy of integration”.

ICE agent Christian Castro faces criminal charges for shooting a Minnesota man in the leg during an immigration raid.

A United States judge has denied a request to compel the extradition of a federal immigration agent charged with shooting a man during an immigration raid in the state of Minnesota and lying about it.

Wednesday’s decision concerns the case of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Christian Castro, who has been detained in a county jail in Texas since May.

Minnesota has sought his extradition as he faces charges of assault and falsely reporting a crime in Hennepin County, which covers Minneapolis.

Under Texas law, the state cannot hold the subject of an extradition order for more than 90 days. At that point, the suspect must either be transferred or released. The deadline for Castro is set to expire on Thursday.

Minnesota argued in a lawsuit this month that Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, has refused to authorise the extradition for political reasons.

But in Wednesday’s ruling, Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr wrote that he could not intervene because Abbott has not yet acted – and has therefore not yet violated any law.

“The record reflects only that Governor Abbott has neither agreed nor refused to sign the rendition warrant as to Castro,” Rodriguez wrote.

Castro has been charged in connection with the non-fatal shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis during an immigration raid in Minnesota on January 14, part of a mass deportation effort under President Donald Trump.

Starting in December, Trump oversaw a large-scale deployment of federal agents to the Midwestern state, dubbed Operation Metro Surge.

The operation, which lasted less than three months, sparked protests and allegations of civil liberty violations from residents and watchdog groups.

Prosecutors say Castro fired a gun through the front door of a Minneapolis home, shooting Sosa-Celis in the leg.

Afterwards, he and another agent accused Sosa-Celis and another man of assaulting federal authorities with a broom handle and snow shovel. Those allegations were later disproven after video of the incident emerged. Criminal charges against Sosa-Celis were subsequently dropped.

Todd Lyons, then-acting director of ICE, confirmed in February that the agents appeared to have made “untruthful statements”. Castro and the second agent were placed on administrative leave.

Castro is currently in custody in Brownsville, Texas. Minnesota officials have warned that he may flee the country if released, citing calls he made from jail to a woman in Mexico.

During those calls, Castro talked “about marrying her and buying a house in Mexico when he is released”, according to Minnesota’s lawsuit.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison filed a request for a temporary restraining order last week to stop Castro’s anticipated release and force Governor Abbott to sign the extradition warrant.

Ellison has framed Abbott’s decision not to take action as a way of supporting Trump’s mass deportation campaign and skirting federal extradition law.

“For nearly three months, Greg Abbott has refused to return ICE agent Christian Castro to Minnesota, where he’s charged with shooting a Minnesotan in his own home,” Ellison wrote in a social media post.

“Abbott has a legal obligation to return him. Instead, he’s chosen to ignore the law.”

If the action happens, it will be the largest single mass revocation of visas in US history, AP reports.

The United States is preparing to cancel business and tourism visas of up to 200,000 foreigners who have applied for or are seeking asylum in the country, according to the Associated Press news agency.

The AP, citing State Department documents and interviews with two US officials, reported on Monday that if the plan goes ahead, it would be the “largest single mass revocation of visas” in the country’s history.

It said the State Department is expected to announce the action within the coming weeks, working in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

It would target so-called B1 and B2 visas issued between 2016 and 2026, whose holders have sought asylum or are now seeking asylum.

“We are coordinating with DHS to identify and revoke the nonimmigrant visas of foreigners who have come to the United States claiming to be short-term visitors, but then file for asylum to stay here permanently,” said State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott.

Officials cited by the AP said the revocations would not automatically trigger deportations.

Instead, most people with pending asylum cases would be shifted into a different immigration category, effectively stripping their business or tourist designation while their cases proceed.

In a social media post on Monday, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau called out people who he said try to use tourist and business visas to get into the US and then apply for asylum.

“People in the US and all over the world are fed up with bogus asylum claims,” Landau wrote on X. “Asylum isn’t supposed to be a loophole to circumvent immigration law.”

Since President Donald Trump took office for his second term last year, his administration has steadily ramped up restrictions on visa applicants – demanding more information about their social media histories, requiring the posting of expensive bonds for the processing of visas, and outright banning the issuance of visas to citizens of certain countries.

In the past 18 months, the State Department has also revoked about 175,000 visas for people who have been convicted or accused of crimes ranging from drunk driving to rape and robbery, as well as for people who have spoken out publicly against US policies, particularly in the Middle East.

Germany splits

At least two generations on both Guetinger’s maternal and paternal sides were from Babenhausen, a small Bavarian market town of about 4,000 people in the 1960s. Surrounded by a castle, it was once home to a merchant family said to have been prominent during the Middle Ages.

Guetinger’s father, Ernst, was among five siblings and the youngest of the three boys. Hans was the eldest, followed by another brother, Erich, and there was a four-year age gap between Ernst and Hans. Guetinger said this age difference played a role in his father’s and uncle’s relationship.

“My dad and uncle Hans didn’t have a very close relationship because they had grown up during wartime,” he said. “When war broke out in 1939, Uncle Hans was obliged to serve as a soldier.”

Soldiers were in short supply, so German boys aged 16 and 17 were drafted as “Flakhelfer” to work with anti-aircraft guns or man the huge lights that tracked enemy aircraft.

“My Uncle Erich was in this age range so served in this role, but my dad, being the youngest, did not have to serve,” he added.

After Nazi Germany’s defeat in 1945, the country was divided into occupation zones and then formally split into two separate countries in 1949.

Hans returned to Babenhausen, Bavaria, after the war and looked for work as a shoemaker. But jobs were scarce, and he had trouble finding work.

Amid their struggles, Hans’s homesick wife encouraged him to try finding work in the GDR, where she was from. They knew they would be welcomed, because the GDR was keen on people willing to buck the trend of those going west – roughly 2.7 million people moved to West Germany between 1949 and 1961 – for better economic and employment opportunities.

In 1958, Hans’s family moved east to Brieskow-Finkenheerd, a village near the Polish border, where Hans started working at a power station that also provided their accommodation. He was also able to indulge in his love of hunting as much as he liked.

“He was very happy hunting,” Guetinger remembered fondly. “In West Germany, you could only hunt if you owned land, but since the government owned all the land in the GDR, my uncle was told he could hunt wherever he wanted.”

Hans became so well known for his hunting abilities that when the big cadres wanted to celebrate something and eat some tasty meat like boar or wild swine, they would ask Hans to go hunting.

“The party had its own hunters, but they considered my uncle one of the best,” Guetinger said.

Meanwhile, Hans’s younger brother Ernst, back in Bavaria, became a father to Erich Guetinger in 1951.

In the 1950s, freedom of movement between the two countries remained largely unrestricted, but from the 1960s onwards, tougher measures were instituted. After that, East Germans were generally only allowed to travel to the West for urgent family matters, such as funerals or weddings.

In August 1961 – 65 years ago – the East German government began building the Berlin Wall, a 155km (96 miles) concrete structure surrounding West Berlin that effectively isolated it within GDR territory and severed the capital.

Outside Berlin, efforts to fortify the division led to the installation of new barbed wire fences, detectors, watchtowers, as well as booby-traps and extended powers for border guards to shoot and arrest escapees. Between then and 1989, when the wall came down, an estimated 75,000 people were imprisoned for trying to escape.

Guetinger says that in the early years of the division, there was barely any contact with his uncle and family.

“Eventually, we were able to start sending letters, but we shared very little in these because everybody knew the East German secret police, known as the Stasi, would carefully check the post between families, often reading our letters,” he said.

Like many families in West Germany, the Guetingers would often send Western products to their relatives in the East.

“For Christmas, we made parcels containing things we knew they would like, and which we knew it would be difficult for them to get, such as coffee and blue jeans,” Guetinger said.

“Blue jeans were particularly hot property, and my cousins liked this kind of clothing. And even though we would send parcels, there was always a chance that they wouldn’t reach them,” he explained, noting that shipments were closely monitored.

Guetinger says it is still hard to fully assess how the day-to-day disruption caused by the division impacted their family’s sense of safety and unity.

“Even if my parents had a heavy heart back then, they would rarely talk about it, so today, I have to rely on other indicators to try and understand. And one of the indicators is that my dad and his elder brother tried to visit each other as soon as it was possible for both of them.”

The United States has sent about 2,300 Mexican nationals to Guatemala, despite objections from the Mexican government, as President Donald Trump steps up deportations.

Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo confirmed on Wednesday that his country has received about 2,284 Mexican nationals deported from the US this year.

“They are arriving on planes carrying Guatemalan returnees,” Arevalo said in a news conference.

“In coordination with the Mexican government, what we have done is bring them through in transit so that we can return them to Mexican territory within 24 hours of their arrival in the country.”

The removals are part of a growing trend of third-country deportations under Trump, who has sent migrants and asylum seekers from the US to countries they may have no connection to.

Largely, the Trump administration has justified such deportations by saying that the immigrants in question are unable to return to their home countries.

But that is not the case with Mexico, which has consistently accepted deportations from the US.

Critics have blasted the third-country removals as a form of punishment, effectively stranding migrants and asylum seekers far from home.

Speaking about the Mexican nationals sent to Guatemala, Arevalo has said that the deportees are quickly repatriated to their country, with the costs covered by either the Mexican or US government.

But Mexican officials voiced concern about the US sending its citizens to third-party countries.

“The Mexican government has expressed its opposition to this practice to US authorities and has reiterated that every Mexican citizen has the right to enter the country,” Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Thursday.

Following a meeting with Guatemalan officials on Tuesday, the Foreign Ministry also said that the two countries are united by shared values including shared security and “human mobility with dignity”.

Guatemala is not the only country to receive Mexican nationals from the US in recent months. Reports have also emerged that some Mexicans have been transported to Honduras as well.

“They didn’t tell us anything, just to get on the flight,” Arturo Trejo, a Mexican man who was deported to Honduras, told the TV channel Telemundo.

Mexico’s National Migration Institute (INM) told The Associated Press news agency that the US had justified the practice as a form of deterrence.

“The reason is that the United States wants to prevent them from crossing back into its territory,” the INM said.

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), meanwhile, responded to inquiries about the practice by saying that it was “utilising all lawful options to carry out the largest deportation operation in history, just as President Trump promised”.

But many human rights experts view the third-country deportations of Mexicans as an intimidation tactic.

“What we are seeing seems part of [a] broader trend towards a very severe US migration policy where they seek to instill terror and fear in migrants at all costs,” Ana Maria Mendez, the Central America director at migrants rights group WOLA, told the news service Reuters.

As neighbours, the US and Mexico have long had a close relationship. The two countries remain top trading partners for one another, with a cross-border exchange of roughly $964.1bn in 2025 alone.

But since Trump returned to the presidency last year, the Mexican government has had to strike a delicate balance.

It has sought to cooperate with the Trump administration on immigration enforcement, while defending the rights of its citizens against alleged abuse.

Critics have accused immigration agents of using excessive violence during raids, and experts have noted a rising number of deaths while in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Since Trump returned to office, at least 15 Mexican nationals have died in ICE custody, and another three died during enforcement operations.

In response, the Mexican government has filed complaints with state prosecutors in the US. It has also denounced conditions in ICE detention centres as “incompatible with human rights standards” and urged regular visits from Mexican consular officials.

A first group of deportees, out of an expected total of 1,200, has landed at the Roberts International Airport in Monrovia, Liberia, from the United States.

Thursday’s flight is part of an expanding trend of third-country deportations under the administration of US President Donald Trump, whereby foreign nationals are sent to countries that are not their own.

The inaugural flight carried 20 people, largely from Latin American countries like Venezuela and Cuba.

After landing, the group boarded a bus and was taken away by Liberian authorities without being allowed to speak to reporters.

The flight follows an agreement, announced on Tuesday, between the US and Liberia that will bring up to 1,200 deportees to the African country over the coming year.

Liberia is part of a growing list of countries striking agreements with the Trump administration.

Since taking office for a second term as US president in 2025, Trump has inked deals with at least 35 countries to accept third-country deportees, according to the nonprofit Human Rights First.

In exchange, some of those countries have received financial aid and trade deals. Senate Democrats in February estimated that at least $40m had been spent on such deals in the first year of Trump’s second term.

The US, for example, awarded Liberia $5m this year for “migration management activities”.

But in announcing the transfer deal earlier this week, Liberia’s Ministry of Information denied any reports that it agreed to the deportations for financial motives.

“The transfer of persons to Liberia is not a transaction with a quid pro quo,” the ministry said in a statement. “Liberia has not demanded or received any compensation or promise of reward in exchange for its consent to participate in the program.”

Liberia’s Information Minister Jerolinmek Piah also told the news agency Reuters that the International Organization for Migration and the United Nations refugee agency would help provide services for the deportees.

Those brought to Liberia will be allowed to apply for asylum and are “free to depart the country when they so desire”, according to Tuesday’s statement.

Liberia has said that the deportees are not “criminals and are not being prosecuted in any manner”.

“Liberia, the first black African independent nation on the African continent, has a long history of accepting people seeking refuge from political and other crises,” the ministry’s statement said.

“As a matter of fact, Liberia itself was founded as a refuge for freed slaves from the United States of America and other parts of the world.”

But critics have questioned whether smaller countries in Africa and elsewhere are being used as a “dumping ground” for US deportees, and whether the immigrants forcibly sent abroad will have adequate access to the resources they need.

Some have characterised such third-country deportations as excessively punitive, stranding migrants and asylum seekers in places where they sometimes cannot even speak the language.

The Trump administration, meanwhile, has framed the third-party deportations as necessary for immigrants whose home countries will not accept them. It has also framed the removals as a form of deterrence.

Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo on Thursday estimated that, this year alone, roughly 2,300 Mexican citizens have been deported from the US to his country, as opposed to being sent directly to Mexico.

Media outlets, including CBS News, have reported that the manouevre is part of an effort to disincentivize Mexican nationals from returning to the US without legal immigration status.

Arevalo explained, however, that such deportees are swiftly sent back to Mexico. “They are arriving in planes of Guatemalan returnees, and what we have done is process them as in transit, ‌in coordination with the Mexican immigration authorities,” he said.

A girl is taken to hospital in critical condition in what PM Burnham calls a ‘terrible family tragedy’.

Three members of a Palestinian British family have drowned after entering the sea off England’s Sussex coast, the Palestinian embassy in London says.

The embassy announced their deaths on Wednesday, a day after the family went for a swim near Shoreham Fort in Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex.

The father, Hossam al-Khawas, was a Palestinian refugee from the Rashidieh Camp in southern Lebanon near Tyre, the Press Association news agency reported.

Police, paramedics, coastguard crews and a lifeboat were deployed at the scene where four people were pulled from the water.

Al-Khawas, a woman and a teenage girl were pronounced dead. A younger girl was taken to hospital in a critical condition.

“The Embassy is closely monitoring the incident and is making the necessary contacts with the relevant British authorities to ascertain its circumstances and to check on the condition of the injured girl,” the Palestinian mission in the United Kingdom said in a statement.

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham on Wednesday warned of the dangers of open water swimming after the incident, which he described as “a terrible family tragedy”, the BBC reported.

He said he sends his “best wishes and love” to the family and friends of those who died as well as the girl who remains in critical condition.

Drownings have surged across Europe as people seek relief from the heatwave on the continent with incidents reported in France, Germany and the UK. Experts warned that open-water swimming can carry hidden risks, including cold water shock, strong currents and sudden changes in depth.

State Attorney General Keith Ellison has called for the transfer of an ICE agent accused of lying about a nonfatal shooting.

Minnesota’s attorney general is suing the governor of Texas to force the extradition of a federal agent charged with shooting and wounding a man during President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.

In a lawsuit filed on Tuesday, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison argued that Texas Governor Greg Abbott has refused to fulfil his “mandatory” obligation to transfer Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Christian Castro, so that he may stand trial.

“Governor Abbott has withheld the warrant and held up Castro’s extradition for nearly three months,” Ellison told reporters on Tuesday. “He has no discretion to decline to do so.”

Ellison also asked the US district court in southern Texas to bar Cameron County Sheriff Manuel Trevino from allowing Castro’s release from jail.

Castro’s case has become part of a national debate over transparency and excessive violence during Trump’s mass deportation campaign.

The agent was involved in the January 14 shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, a Venezuelan man living in Minnesota. Officials allege that Castro fired a gun into Sosa-Celis’s front door, striking him in the leg.

Initially, the Trump administration said the agents had fired in self-defence, accusing Sosa-Celis and two other people of attacking officers with a broom and a snow shovel during an immigration enforcement operation.

Then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem went so far as to call the incident the “attempted murder” of an ICE agent.

But video emerged contradicting the ICE agents’ testimony, and in February, federal prosecutors dropped the charges they had filed against Sosa-Celis and his housemate, Alfredo Aljorna.

In a statement that month, ICE’s then-Acting Director Todd Lyons confirmed that Castro and a second ICE agent appeared to have lied about the incident. The two officers were subsequently placed on administrative leave.

“A joint review by ICE and the Department of Justice (DOJ) of video evidence has revealed that sworn testimony provided by two separate officers appears to have made untruthful statements,” Lyons said in a statement at the time.

In May, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office charged Castro with four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime.

“Mr Castro is an ICE agent. But his federal badge does not make him immune from state charges for his criminal conduct in Minnesota,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in a statement.

Castro was arrested on May 29 in Texas, and he has remained in detention since.

But Ellison has expressed concern that Texas officials – including Abbott, an ally of President Trump – could seek Castro’s release rather than have him face trial.

The Minnesota attorney general described Castro as a flight risk, likely to flee across the US border to Mexico.

“We know that [Castro] has some connections to Mexico, and we know that he has some thought of at some point going to Mexico,” Ellison said. “So, we do believe he’s a risk.”

Abbott’s office told The Associated Press in a statement that it would not comment on “pending extradition matters”.

Under Texas law, Ellison said the 52-year-old Castro could be released from custody as soon as next week – 90 days after he was detained – if Abbott does not agree to his extradition.

The Sosa-Celis shooting was one of several cases this year that prompted questions about the use of deadly force during immigration proceedings.

The Minneapolis area was the subject of one of Trump’s most intense immigration enforcement campaigns, dubbed Operation Metro Surge.

Lasting from December to February, Operation Metro Surge saw what critics considered to be escalating tactics from immigration officials, including warrantless house searches.

Two US citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretty, were killed by agents during protests against the operation.

Judge previously found US government brought charges against Abrego Garcia as retaliation for case that embarrassed it.

The administration of United States President Donald Trump is seeking to revive criminal charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man whose wrongful deportation became a source of embarrassment for US immigration authorities.

The US Department of Justice asked a federal appeals court late on Monday to throw out a previous ruling by a judge that slammed the administration’s prosecution of Abrego Garcia as a form of political retaliation.

In his May ruling, US District Judge Waverly Crenshaw found the government’s efforts to bring criminal charges against Abrego Garcia to be an “abuse of prosecuting power”.

Federal prosecutors argued in a brief filed with the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals that Crenshaw’s ruling was flawed in a push to revive criminal charges the Trump administration brought against Abrego Garcia after being forced to return him to the US.

The Salvadoran national was brought back to the US after the government admitted that it had wrongfully deported him to El Salvador, where he was held in a detention facility that was operated by the Salvadoran government and that was notorious for abusive conditions and alleged use of torture.

The Trump administration initially fought efforts to return the 31-year-old Abrego Garcia to the US, even after admitting that he had been wrongfully deported despite a 2019 order from an immigration judge that he had a “well-founded fear” of being targeted in El Salvador.

The administration then filed criminal charges against Abrego Garcia when he arrived back in the US, accusing him of human trafficking.

Crenshaw found that there was evidence of “presumptive vindictiveness” on the part of the US government and that the charges would not have been brought if Abrego Garcia’s case had not been a public setback for the government.

Abrego Garcia has previously said that he is willing to agree to be deported to Costa Rica. But the Trump administration has instead fought to have him deported to the African nation of Liberia, to which he has no connection and where he would be far from friends and family.

Malta’s Foreign Minister Chris Fearne calls for a stronger and more coordinated European response to growing crises across the Mediterranean and beyond. He rejects the idea of the Mediterranean as a border separating a more affluent Europe from a less affluent Africa, arguing instead that it should be seen as a bridge connecting the two.

In this discussion, Fearne says Malta supports a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine, continued European support for Ukraine, and efforts to bring Libya’s rival factions towards elections and reunification. However, he warns the world has become a more dangerous place and that the rule of law internationally does not always apply.

Yemen’s Ministry of Information denounces Houthi attacks on Marib as ‘escalation’ that threatens lives and increases suffering.

Yemen’s Houthis have launched several strikes on the government-held city of Marib, also hitting residential neighbourhoods, according to local authorities.

The group hit the city with four ballistic missiles and four drones on Saturday, causing several injuries and damage to homes, vehicles and property, Marib’s provincial authority said.

A fifth ballistic missile later in the day also injured one person, Marib governorate officials said on X.

A sixth ballistic missile was launched by the Houthis towards Marib overnight, officials added early on Sunday.

It described the strikes as part of an “ongoing assault that threatens the lives of civilians, displaced persons’ camps, and residential neighbourhoods”.

Marib hosts the largest number of internally displaced people in Yemen, with more than two million of the roughly five million Yemenis forced from their homes over the course of the war living there.

Video footage verified by Al Jazeera showed destruction in the aftermath of Saturday’s strikes.

Yemen’s Ministry of Information said on X that the continued targeting of Marib’s densely populated areas marked a dangerous “escalation” that threatens lives and increases suffering.

The attacks on Marib came alongside clashes further south, where Yemeni government forces claimed drone strikes killed three fighters from the Iran-backed Houthis on Saturday, including field commanders, and wounded others along the Maqbanah front west of Taiz.

A separate strike destroyed a Houthi military vehicle in Jabal al-Zuhayb, killing several more fighters, a military source told the Yemeni News Agency (Saba).

The attacks are part of a rapid escalation that has gripped Yemen since early August, when Houthi missile and drone strikes on military camps in Marib and Hadramout killed at least 30 government soldiers, the deadliest single episode of the conflict in years.

Days later, Houthi missiles killed at least two civilians and wounded 14 in Marib, and further strikes killed seven people in the port city of al-Makha (Mocha).

The Houthis, backed by Iran, control much of Yemen’s northern territory, including the capital, Sanaa.

United Nations Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg warned the UN Security Council on Thursday that Yemen faces its highest risk of returning to full-scale war since the UN-brokered truce of April 2022, as fighting has intensified on multiple fronts and threatens to unravel more than four years of relative calm.

US Department of Homeland Security is expected to buy up to $20m in gloves amid criticism of the president’s immigration crackdown.

The administration of United States President Donald Trump is planning to spend tens of millions of dollars to equip federal immigration agents with gloves capable of delivering electric shocks.

According to a notice posted on Monday, the Department of Homeland Security has estimated it will invest between $10m and $20m in such gloves by the end of March 2027.

The devices are known as the CT-G5 G.L.O.V.E., an acronym that stands for “Generate Low Output Voltage Emitter”. They are currently used by some jails and police departments.

Their manufacturer, Compliant Technologies, says the gloves are used to “quickly distract with small uncomfortable electrical pulses” when applied to a person’s skin. The Department of Homeland Security indicated they would be used for “distraction and de-escalation”.

A user manual states the gloves can deliver a maximum of 380 volts, which “inhibits/distracts the subject from performing coordinated muscle movement”.

The planned purchase has already sparked a backlash among rights advocates, who fear the gloves will be used to harm protesters and immigrants in the department’s custody.

The Department of Homeland Security oversees an array of agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which has led Trump’s campaign of mass deportation.

Monday’s announcement specified that ICE has a requirement to make the purchase and distribute the gloves to agents within Enforcement and Removal Operations, one of its subsidiaries, and Homeland Security Investigations.

But ICE has faced increasing criticism for its tactics, including accusations of racial profiling and excessive force.

At least four people have been shot dead during encounters with ICE agents since the start of this year. Dozens more have died in ICE custody.

On Wednesday, the National Immigration Law Center (NILC) issued a statement criticising the anticipated glove purchase, calling it a path to further violence against vulnerable communities.

It also noted that, in June, the Republican-led Congress passed tens of billions of dollars in ICE spending as part of the Secure America Act.

“This is a rogue agency with an $80 billion slush fund that allows them to concoct and fund new ways to visit cruelty upon our communities,” NILC President Kica Mantos said in the statement. “Arming poorly trained agents with electric shock gloves to inflict pain on our neighbors is disgusting and barbaric.”

The Department of Homeland Security offered no immediate response to The Associated Press news agency, one of the first news outlets to report on the story.

The founder and CEO of Compliant, Jeff Niklaus, told the publication in an email, “Unfortunately, we are unable to speak on this subject.”

Compliant has argued in the past that its devices are “humane” and do not cause injury.

“The technology is safe as it does not penetrate the subject’s body, while also allowing other officers to grab the individual being stimulated with no fear of feedback into their bodies,” the manufacturer says on its website.

However, Compliant recommends avoiding use of the device on “higher risk” individuals, including the elderly, small children, pregnant people and those with severe disabilities. Officers must also complete a course to use the gloves and be recertified every two years, according to the company.

The notice, listed as a no-bid contract, could be published by Friday.

Growing up, filmmaker Fernando Eimbcke didn’t get to watch the scene in “The Breakfast Club” where the teenage characters smoke marijuana. That moment was removed from the VHS copy of the 1980s classic he’d rented because of strict censorship in Mexico at the time.

Drug use or not, that John Hughes movie, as well “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” impacted him profoundly. “Those were movies that spoke to young people, and in Mexico there wasn’t much cinema aimed at teens,” Eimbcke tells me in Spanish on a video call from Mexico City.

From his indie trench, Eimbcke, 55, has tried to fill that void in Mexican cinema — starting with his 2004 acclaimed debut “Temporada de patos” (Duck Season), about two teen boys spending a day without adult supervision. Since then, in films like “Lake Tahoe” (2008) or “Club Sandwich” (2013), the woes of adolescence have dominated his purview.

With “Olmo,” in theaters Friday, Eimbcke has adapted his career-long interest on the youth’s preoccupations to a story on this side of the Mexico-U.S. border for the first time.

Set and filmed on location in Las Cruces, N.M., his bilingual coming-of-age dramedy follows the titular Olmo (played by Aivan Uttapa), a charismatic Mexican American 14-year-old boy in the 1970s, whose bedridden immigrant father requires around-the-clock care.

The tightly written and humorously bittersweet narrative (co-penned by Eimbcke and Vanesa Garnica) unfolds over the course of a fateful Saturday. Nina Sandoval (Melanie Frometa), Olmo’s crush, invites him and his boot-wearing best friend Miguel (Diego Olmedo) to a party, with the condition that they bring a stereo. But Olmo has also been tasked with looking after dad Nestor (Gustavo Sánchez Parra), while his mother works.

Olmo must decide between fulfilling his duty or pursuing his age-appropriate impulse for fun.

Fernando Eimbcke’s new coming-of-age dramedy “Olmo” follows a charismatic Chicano teen in 1970s New Mexico.

(Andrew Bohn / Olma 2023 LLC)

It was during the six years that Eimbcke lived in Germany that Plan B, the American production company behind titles like “Moonlight,” reached out with an idea for him to write a screenplay about a Mexican American character. That project didn’t come to fruition, but Eimbcke took advantage of their initial interest to create his own story.

Eimbcke had long been interested in stories of migration, and in the dynamics that occur within “bicultural” families. His experience living abroad heightened this curiosity.

“I’m surprised to see the fear that governments and society have regarding migration today. It’s one of the best things that can happen to a culture,” Eimbcke says. “Everyone is talking about Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey,’ and the story of Odysseus is a story of migration.”

Among the key inspirations that shaped how Eimbcke and Garnica (who have been friends since they were 14 years old) conceived “Olmo” were Dominican American author Junot Díaz’s work, as well as Kevin Bubriski’s photography book “The New Mexicans: 1981-83.”

“He photographed Mexican Americans in the 1980s in New Mexico, and that gave us many ideas,” he says. “He has some incredible, truly beautiful photos of Mexican Americans.”

While scouting locations in New Mexico, the production interacted with local Latino families. In those households, Eimbcke witnessed immigrant parents speaking Spanish to their children who replied to them in English. Similar exchanges happen in “Olmo.”

“If communication is already difficult within a family when everyone speaks the same language, the idea of a family speaking two languages struck me as absolutely fascinating. Rather than an obstacle, I saw it as an opportunity to explore their relationship,” he explains. “Language isn’t always that important. When Olmo and Néstor argue over the stereo, you never really know if they actually understand each other through words or not.”

The complex intricacies of language manifested on Eimbcke’s first bilingual set.

During a scene where Olmo and Miguel finally fix the stereo and begin dancing, Eimbcke wanted a more rambunctious reaction. He started yelling, “More caos. More caos.” The assistant director looked puzzled, thinking the director was asking for “cows.” Eimbcke meant “chaos,” but pronounced it Spanish, which sounds like the farm animal in English.

“It was very difficult for me, because my English is far from perfect, it’s actually quite imperfect,” Eimbcke says sincerely.

For Uttapa, 17, these interactions seemed authentic; he is a second-generation Mexican American whose grandmother came to the U.S. from Mexico, while his mother was born here.

“My grandma speaks fluent Spanish, and she talks to me, my brothers, and my sister in Spanish, and we answer in English,” says Uttapa on Zoom. “That dynamic and that detail in the movie really did make it real to me.”

Fernando Eimbcke’s new coming-of-age dramedy “Olmo” follows a charismatic Chicano teen in 1970s New Mexico.

(Andrew Bohn / Olma 2023 LLC )

Based in Las Vegas, the fresh-faced Uttapa started acting at 12. He shared his interest in performing with his parents, who enrolled him with acting coach Frank Parillo. “I remember telling my mom, ‘I just want to entertain. I just want to be relatable and make an impact on people.’ If you can impact one person, then it pretty much is worth it,” he says.

Eimbcke cast him solely based on his self-tape after a long search for the right actor to become Olmo, primarily in Los Angeles and New York.

Since shooting “Olmo” when he was 14, Uttapa has appeared in the latest season of the hit medical drama “The Pitt,” playing Grady Barnhill, who has an asthma attack, in two episodes. Still, playing Olmo remains the highlight of his short but burgeoning career.

“I’ve gotten some auditions here and there about Mexican American or Latino characters, but if I’m being honest, none of them really clicked to me as much as it did with Olmo. I really felt a connection with the character,” Uttapa notes.

That Eimbcke set “Olmo” in the ’70s — based on his memories of watching “Saturday Night Fever” as a child and being enamored by disco music — helped Uttapa connect with the character. At several points in their adventure, Olmo and Miguel break out their best dance moves.

His mother, Uttapa says, thinks of him as an “old soul,” given his eclectic taste in music, from Elvis Presley and Del Shannon to AC/DC and Led Zeppelin.

“I was already familiar with cumbia, because my mom would always teach me,” Uttapa says. “The disco dancing wasn’t really that hard for me because I grew up loving ’70s music, so I’d always dance in my room to it. And being able to show it on screen was really special.”

Eimbcke says he has no secret technique to obtain wonderful performances from his teen stars; the only strategy that works is to lean into fun. “Teenagers are very willing to play. They are willing to take risks,” the director adds. “And I always love combining two schools of acting: the professional and the nonprofessional.” The actors who play Olmo’s parents, Gustavo Sánchez Parra and Andrea Suárez Paz, are seasoned Mexican thespians.

And while Eimbcke may very well be the Mexican John Hughes, there are certainly uniquely Mexican, and perhaps unexpected, references that were foundational for him as an artist.

“I also grew up watching a lot of telenovelas. They were really formative for me, specifically, the telenovelas on the local Channel 2,” Eimbcke confesses. “I remember there was one I followed religiously called ‘Quinceañera,’ starring Thalia. I loved it.”

Palestinian Christians are facing violence and displacement across Gaza, Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank. Attacks, including those targeting churches and clergy, are causing the Palestinian Christian population to shrink.

The rulings allow the Trump administration to end Temporary Protected Status for nationals of the two countries.

Two federal judges have cleared the way for President Donald Trump’s administration to end temporary protections from deportation for people who have come to the United States from South Sudan and Myanmar.

Judges in Boston, Massachusetts and Chicago, Illinois on Friday rejected last-ditch efforts by immigrant-rights advocates to maintain the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designations for the two countries after the US Supreme Court in June allowed the administration to end similar protections for thousands of people from Haiti and Syria.

TPS shields people from deportation and grants work authorisation when their home countries are affected by armed conflict, natural disasters or other extraordinary conditions. The terminations would end protections for about 232 South Sudanese nationals and roughly 4,000 people from Myanmar, according to the Reuters news agency.

The Supreme Court decision had limited lower courts’ ability to block the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) efforts to end TPS for people from roughly a dozen countries, arguing the executive branch maintained broad authority to make decisions on the programme.

After the Supreme Court’s ruling, immigrant-rights lawyers made a new challenge, arguing that DHS lacked the authority to terminate TPS.

But US District Judge Patti Saris in Boston rejected the argument, saying it would not only call into question DHS authority to end TPS but also its longstanding authority to extend the protections.

Judge Matthew Kennelly in Chicago made a similar conclusion in the Myanmar case hours later.

Advocates have warned the rulings leave TPS recipients, who had been given an “administrative stay” amid the ongoing legal battle that allowed them to continue to work and live in the US, exposed to possible deportation to countries still gripped by conflict and instability.

DHS had moved in November 2025 to end TPS for South Sudan, which has held the designation since 2011 amid ongoing conflict, and Myanmar, in political turmoil since a 2021 military coup.

James Percival, General Counsel of DHS, said the new rulings leave only TPS terminations for Ethiopian and Somalian nationals, which are still blocked by courts.

“Every day these ‘administrative stays’ are in effect is a day the American people are denied what they voted for,” he wrote on X.

Authorities say they broke up one of the largest criminal networks running migrant smuggling in the Western Mediterranean.

Spanish authorities, working with Europol and police in France, Portugal and Poland, have dismantled what they say is one of the largest criminal networks for migrant smuggling, illegal drugs and weapons trafficking across the Western Mediterranean.

Launched by Spain’s Civil Guard and National Police in 2023, the operation culminated in an “action day” on June 16, Europol said on Friday, leading to 78 arrests and the seizure of assets, including 18 high-speed boats.

Officials described the crossings as extremely dangerous, with migrants crammed into overcrowded boats travelling at high speed through rough seas, often without lighting or life jackets.

Authorities said passengers were sometimes tied down to keep them from falling overboard, and that the organisation used extraordinary violence against migrants, its own members and police.

The operation “successfully dismantled one of the ⁠most complex, active and dangerous transnational criminal networks detected to date in the Mediterranean,” Spain’s Civil Guard said in a statement.

Of those detained, 77 were arrested in Spain and one in Algeria, including three high-value targets. Most were Algerian nationals with ties to criminal groups in France, Belgium, Portugal, Italy and Poland.

As part of the operation, 17 locations were searched in Spain, including in Alicante, Almeria, Cartagena and Murcia.

The announcement on Friday comes a week after a mass migrant surge into Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta drew international attention to migration pressures in the region.

The criminal network, described as operating like a logistics company for organised crime groups, managed two-way maritime smuggling routes between Europe and Algeria, according to Europol.

The network allegedly moved synthetic drugs southward and migrants northward to Spain’s southeastern coast and the island of Ibiza.

Investigators say the network carried out at least 64 migrant-smuggling operations, bringing more than 2,000 people into Spain and generating over €24 million ($27m) in profits, charging as much as €12,000 ($13,800) per migrant and packing up to 50 people onto a single boat.

Authorities also found that the network provided a wide range of services to other criminal organisations, including vessel storage, transportation, refuelling, maritime transfers, boat maintenance and counter-surveillance.

The network reportedly moved money through informal hawala networks, making it difficult for investigators to trace illicit funds.

Madrid warns of ‘proportional measures’ if Rome does not put an end to checks amid fallout from Ceuta migrant crisis.

Italy has doubled down on its temporary reinstatement of border controls following the deadly rush of thousands of migrants into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, even after Madrid threatened retaliation.

In a statement on Friday, the Italian government said it would not bow to “ultimatums or impositions” from ⁠Spain and would maintain border controls until at least August 15.

The refusal came hours after the Spanish government declared a two-day deadline for Italy “to rectify, put an end to the checks and treat Spaniards like other European citizens”.

“If it does not do so before the end of Sunday, August 9, Spain will be obliged to adopt proportional measures to protect the interests and dignity of its citizens,” Spain’s statement said.

The diplomatic tit-for-tat unfolds as Spain continues to reel from the influx of some 72,000 people who crossed into Ceuta from Morocco last week, on foot and by sea.

Mass arrivals in the North African Spanish enclave angered other European Union leaders who have taken a hard anti-migration stance, including far-right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

Italy earlier said it would temporarily reintroduce border checks with Spain starting on August 1 in what Meloni called an “extraordinary measure” seeking to “safeguard national security and prevent possible repercussions for our nation”.

Yet experts said there was little prospect of migrants travelling from Ceuta to Italy, particularly as Italy and Spain do not share a land border. Rights groups instead pegged Meloni’s move as “political theatre”.

Still, 22 EU member states signed a joint letter accusing Spain of “pull factors” that destabilise the bloc’s borders.

The vast majority of the Ceuta migrants have since returned to Morocco as authorities tallied at least 100 deaths.

Also on Friday, Spain said its police successfully dismantled a people-smuggling operation believed to have brought 2,000 migrants into the country via Spain’s southeastern coast and the island of Ibiza.

Unaccompanied minors

Amid the political fallout, Spanish leaders are grappling with a humanitarian crisis still ongoing in Ceuta.

Of the few thousand undocumented migrants who remain in the enclave, at least 1,342 are children, Youth Minister Sira Rego said on Friday – hundreds of whom are unaccompanied.

Rego acknowledged “painful images” of children sleeping on Ceuta’s streets, noting that two schools had been opened as authorities evaluated more locations as possible reception centres.

Still, Ceuta authorities said at least 1,100 children needed assistance, with Ceuta’s theoretical capacity only totalling 90 places where people could be housed.

“It might only be a matter of a few weeks before we start seeing [children] transferred to and welcomed on the mainland,” Rego told reporters.

Local and international charities have cautioned that the children face abuse and exploitation.

Jose Miguel Morales, head of Federacion Sur Acoge, a migrant rights and assistance group in southern Spain, said some of the children were under 14 years old and had already been beaten and assaulted.

But the transfer of children to the mainland has become a domestic flashpoint in Madrid, where Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s government approved 25 million euros ($29m) to help support unaccompanied minors in the territory.

Leaders from the far-right, anti-immigration Vox party were quick to say they opposed any aid for migrant children.

Vox leader Santiago Abascal wrote on X that “not one euro from Spaniards” should go “for illegals, for invaders”.