Mexico City – The Mexican airline Volaris announced Friday the launch of flights costing $1 each to make it easy for undocumented Central American migrants to return to their countries of origin.
“The ultra-low-cost airline operating in Mexico, the United States and Central America launches its Reuniting Families program,” the airline announced in a statement.
The program “invites Central American migrants of an irregular migratory status who are currently in Mexico and wish to return voluntarily to their country of origin,” to fly there for just $1 plus tax.
The flights will be available until June 30 from various Mexican cities including Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez, Guadalajara and Mexico City, with seats available to Costa Rica, El Salvador and Guatemala.
“Elderly migrants must only show their Sole Identity Document (DUI), while minors must present their birth certificate or passport,” it said
For the company, this is an “alternative solution for the migratory phenomenon” that has occurred in recent months.
Since mid-October 2018 there has been an unprecedented increase in the number of migrants, chiefly Central Americans, who routinely enter Mexico in order to reach to United States, which has in turn sparked a crisis between the two countries.
Faced with the rising number of irregular migrants and applicants for asylum who reach the United States, the president of that country, Donald Trump, threatened last May 30 to impose tariffs on all Mexican products.
After some arduous negotiations in Washington, an accord was announced on June 7 that called for sending 6,000 troops of Mexico’s National Guard to the southern border as another measure to stop illegal migration.
The accord includes a period of 45 days to evaluate the results of the measures, and if the United States judges them to be unsatisfactory, the tariffs could be reactivated.
Mexico and El Salvador also launched this Thursday a Comprehensive Development Plan that will establish in the Central American country a Mexican reforestation program with an investment of $30 million to create 20,000 new jobs and thereby halt migration in the region.
