Migrants deterred by Trump's border crackdown wait for UN help to return home
DANLI, Honduras (Reuters) - Migrants deterred by U.S. President Donald Trump's border crackdown are making their way back to their home countries as crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border continue to fall.
In the Honduran town of Danli, near the border with Nicaragua, dozens of migrants are waiting for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), a United Nations agency, to fly them back to Venezuela and other countries.
Betzabeth Bencomo said that after she gave up on her hopes of entering the United States and left Mexico, she thought she'd have to travel once again across the lawless jungle that separates Colombia and Panama in order to reach her native Venezuela. But upon arriving in Honduras, she learned that the IOM was offering repatriation flights for migrants looking to return home.
"We've been waiting for two and a half months," she said. "God willing, soon we will be home."
Venessa Contreras, also from Venezuela, feels safer now that she knows she will be able to fly home - even if she has to wait. She said that the journey home has gotten even more deadly since Panama took steps to block off parts of the jungle, pushing some migrants to resort to traveling by sea on small boats that occasionally capsize on the reverse migration route.
Interest in IOM's assisted voluntary return program has soared since Trump's crackdown began.
In January and February, the agency received 2,862 requests for the program, more than triple the requests logged during the same period last year.
(Reporting by Hugo Monnet in Danli, Honduras, writing by Laura Gottesdiener, editing by Sandra Maler)
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
an hour ago
- The Star
Chile's government to expropriate land tied to Pinochet-era torture
VILLA BAVIERA (Reuters) -Chile plans to expropriate a settlement founded by a German cult leader where torture took place during former dictator Augusto Pinochet's military regime as the government takes another step to shine a light on a dark period of the past. The enclave, originally called Colonia Dignidad and renamed Villa Baviera, was founded in 1961 by Paul Schafer, a former Nazi medic turned evangelical preacher who kept the isolated community under tight control and was later jailed for sexually abusing children. During Pinochet's 1973-1990 dictatorship, Colonia Dignidad also bore witness to another kind of abuse: the torture of political prisoners by military forces in a secret prison at the site. Schafer collaborated with Pinochet's secret police and in exchange was shielded for years from prosecution for his own crimes. The dictatorship viewed the secretive, fortified and remote community as an ideal site to detain and torture dissidents away from public view. The government now wants to turn the 290-acre (117-hectare) community into a memorial, Justice Minister Jaime Gajardo said at an event this month. The aim is to make it "a place that allows all Chileans to enter freely to learn about what happened there," Gajardo said. "Nothing justifies violating human rights as they were violated during the military dictatorship." Schafer died in prison in 2010. Several hundred families once lived at the settlement about 350 kilometers (217 mi) south of Santiago. Today the population numbers closer to 100, many of whom are descendants of the original German settlers. Businesses at Villa Baviera, or Bavarian Village, have tried in recent years to attract visitors to the area's picturesque green fields and views of snow-capped mountains. In the expropriation, property owners will be compensated under terms still to be determined by experts, Gajardo said. The government aims to complete the expropriation before President Gabriel Boric leaves office in March. The justice minister said the community consists of about 90 land parcels but did not specify the number of businesses or residents. PAINFUL PAST Dozens of physically and mentally traumatizedmembers of Colonia Dignidad eventuallyrelocatedto Germany, and the site's history drew international attention in the 2015 film "Colonia." Plans for the expropriation underscore the challenges for governments in coming to terms with complicated histories in places that have overlapping layers of rights abuses. Chile's National Institute of Human Rights in a recent report said those who were tortured by Pinochet's forces as well as the people who suffered under Schaefer's control were equally victims of Colonia Dignidad. Jose Patricio Schmidt, who grew up in Colonia Dignidad and still lives there, said residents had existed in a bubble, unaware of the dictatorship's abuses. "Schaefer would gather us together to read the Bible in a place about a kilometer from where people were tortured, and we knew nothing," he said in an interview at a memorial site in the community that pays tribute to the torture victims. Tens of thousands of people were arrested and tortured throughout Chile during Pinochet's rule, and 1,469 people were victims of forced disappearance. Some have criticized the government's move to take away property from current Villa Baviera community members, especially those who were themselves victims of abuse. Juergen Szurgeleis in an interview said he tried as a boy to escape forced labor and abuse at Colonia Dignidad. "Is it my fault for being born here?" he said. "And now they want to take away my land and leave me in the street?" Yet a former political prisoner at Colonia Dignidad, Luis Jaque, said he struggles to see how the community, which includes a German restaurant and a hotel catering to tourists, can carry on without recognizing the horrors of the past. "It's not reconcilable, at least not for me," he said. (Reporting by Nicolás Cortés in Villa Baviera and Santiago; Writing by Leila Miller and Fabián Cambero; Editing by Daina Beth Solomon and Cynthia Osterman)
New Straits Times
an hour ago
- New Straits Times
Spy cockroaches and AI robots: Germany plots future of warfare
FOR Gundbert Scherf - the co-founder of Germany's Helsing, Europe's most valuable defence start-up - Russia's invasion of Ukraine changed everything. Scherf had to fight hard to attract investment after starting his company - which produces military strike drones and battlefield AI - four years ago. Now, that's the least of his problems. The Munich-based company more than doubled its valuation to US$12 billion at a fundraising last month. "Europe this year, for the first time in decades, is spending more on defence technology acquisition than the US," said Scherf. The former partner at McKinsey & Company says Europe may be on the cusp of a transformation in defence innovation akin to the Manhattan Project - the scientific push that saw the US rapidly develop nuclear weapons during World War Two. "Europe is now coming to terms with defence." Reuters spoke to two dozens executives, investors and policymakers to examine how Germany - Europe's largest economy - aims to play a central role in the rearming the continent. Chancellor Friedrich Merz's government views AI and start-up technology as key to its defence plans and is slashing bureaucracy to connect startups directly to the upper echelons of its military, the sources told Reuters. Shaped by the trauma of Nazi militarism and a strong postwar pacifist ethos, Germany long maintained a relatively small and cautious defence sector, sheltered by US security guarantees. Germany's business model, shaped by a deep aversion to risk, has also favoured incremental improvements over disruptive innovation. No more. With US military support now more uncertain, Germany - one of the biggest backers of Ukraine - plans to nearly triple its regular defence budget to around 162 billion euros (US$175 billion) per year by 2029. Much of that money will go into reinventing the nature of warfare, the sources said. Helsing is part of a wave of German defence start-ups developing cutting-edge technology, from tank-like AI robots and unmanned mini-submarines to battle-ready spy cockroaches. "We want to help give Europe its spine back," said Scherf. Some of these smaller firms are now advising the government alongside established firms - so-called primes such as Rheinmetall and Hensoldt - that have less incentive to focus primarily on innovation, given their long backlogs for conventional systems, one of the sources said. A new draft procurement law, expected to be approved by Merz's cabinet on Wednesday, aims to reduce hurdles for cash-strapped start-ups to join tenders by enabling advance payment to these firms, according to a version dated June 25, reviewed by Reuters. The law would also entitle authorities to limit tenders to bidders inside the European Union. Marc Wietfeld, CEO and founder of autonomous robots maker ARX Robotics, said a recent meeting with German defence minister Boris Pistorius hammered home how deep the rethink in Berlin goes. "He told me: 'Money is no longer an excuse - it's there now'. That was a turning point," he said. Since Donald Trump's return to the political stage and his renewed questioning of America's commitment to Nato, Germany has committed to meet the alliance's new target of 3.5 per cent of GDP on defence spending by 2029 - faster than most European allies. Officials in Berlin have emphasised the need to foster a European defence industry rather than rely on US companies. But the hurdles towards scaling up industry champions in Germany - and Europe more broadly - are considerable. Unlike in the United States, the market is fragmented in Europe. Each country has its own set of procurement standards to fulfill contracts. The United States, the world's top military spender, already has an established stable of defence giants, like Lockheed Martin and RTX, and an advantage in key areas, including satellite technology, fighter jets and precise-guided munitions. Washington also began boosting defence tech startups in 2015 - including Shield AI, drone maker Anduril and software company Palantir - by awarding them parts of military contracts. European startups until recently languished with little government support. But an analysis by Aviation Week in May showed Europe's 19 top defence spenders - including Turkey and Ukraine - were projected to spend US$180.1 billion this year on military procurement compared, to US$175.6 billion for the United States. Washington's overall military spending will remain higher. Hans Christoph Atzpodien, head of Germany's security and defence sector association BDSV, said one challenge was that the military's procurement system was geared toward established suppliers and not well suited to the fast pace that new technologies require. Germany's defence ministry said in a statement it was taking steps to accelerate procurement and to better integrate startups in order to make new technologies quickly available to the Bundeswehr. Annette Lehnigk-Emden, head of the armed forces' powerful procurement agency, highlighted drones and AI as emerging fields that Germany needs to develop. "The changes they're bringing to the battlefield are as revolutionary as the introduction of the machine gun, tank, or airplane," she told Reuters. Sven Weizenegger, who heads up the Cyber Innovation hub, the Bundeswehr's innovation accelerator, said the war in Ukraine was also changing social attitudes, removing a stigma towards working in the defence sector. "Germany has developed a whole new openness towards the issue of security since the invasion," he said. Weizenegger said he was receiving 20-30 Linkedin requests a day, compared to maybe 2-3 weekly back in 2020, with ideas for defence technology to develop. Some of the ideas under development feel akin to science fiction – like Swarm Biotactics' cyborg cockroaches that are equipped with specialised miniature backpacks that enable real-time data collection via cameras for example. Electrical stimuli should allow humans to control the insects' movements remotely. The aim is for them to provide surveillance information in hostile environments - for example information about enemy positions. "Our bio-robots - based on living insects - are equipped with neural stimulation, sensors, and secure communication modules," said CEO Stefan Wilhelm. "They can be steered individually or operate autonomously in swarms. In the first half of the 20th century, German scientists pioneered many military technologies that became global standards, from ballistic missiles to jet aircraft and guided weapons. But following its defeat in World War II, Germany was demilitarised and its scientific talent was dispersed. Wernher von Braun, who invented the first ballistic missile for the Nazis, was one of hundreds of German scientists and engineers transported to the United States in the wake of World War II, where he later worked at NASA and developed the rocket that took Apollo spacecraft to the Moon. In recent decades, defence innovation has been a powerful driver of economic progress. Tech like the internet, GPS, semiconductors and jet engines originated in military research programs before transforming civilian life. Hit by high energy prices, a slowdown in demand for its exports and competition from China, Germany's US$4.75 trillion economy contracted over the last two years. Expanding military research could provide an economic fillip. A boost in defence spending by European governments following Russia's invasion of Ukraine has investors looking for opportunities. Europe now boasts three start-ups with a unicorn valuation of more than US$1 billion: Helsing, German drone maker Quantum Systems, and Portugal's Tekever, which also manufactures drones. "There's a lot of pressure now on Germany being the lead nation of the European defence," said Sven Kruck, Quantum's chief strategy officer. Germany has become Ukraine's second-biggest military backer after the United States. Orders that might once have taken years to approve now take months and European startups have had the opportunity to test their products quickly in the field, several sources said.
The Star
2 hours ago
- The Star
Explainer-Why is Russia trying so hard to capture the strategic Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk?
MOSCOW/KYIV (Reuters) -Russian forces are pushing hard to encircle the strategically important eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk after capturing a string of villages to its south and east, and over 100,000 soldiers are trying to advance in the area, Kyiv says. Following are key facts about Pokrovsk, which Russians call by its Soviet-era name of Krasnoarmeysk, and the long battle for its control which began in earnest last summer. WHAT IS POKROVSK? Pokrovsk is a road and rail hub in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region which had a pre-war population of some 60,000 people. Most people have now fled, all children have been evacuated and, according to Serhii Dobriak, the head of the city's military administration, less than 1,500 residents remain. It lies on a key road which has been used by the Ukrainian military to supply other embattled eastern outposts, including the towns of Chasiv Yar, which has long been consumed by fierce fighting, and Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region. Ukraine's only mine that produces coking coal - used in its once vast steel industry - is around six miles (10 km) west of Pokrovsk. Ukrainian steelmaker Metinvest said in mid-January it had suspended the mine's operations. Since 2014, Pokrovsk has been the site of a major technical university, the largest and oldest such institution in the wider region. The university, now abandoned, has been damaged by shelling. WHY DOES RUSSIA WANT POKROVSK? Moscow says it has annexed Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region and controls over 70% of the area's territory. Kyiv and most Western countries reject Russia's seizure of the territory as an illegal land grab. Capturing Pokrovsk, dubbed "the gateway to Donetsk" by Russian media, and Kostiantynivka to its northeast which Russian forces are also trying to envelop, would give Moscow a platform to drive north towards the two biggest remaining Ukrainian-controlled cities in Donetsk - Kramatorsk and Sloviansk. Control of Pokrovsk would allow Moscow to further disrupt Ukrainian supply lines along the eastern front and boost its long-running campaign to capture Chasiv Yar, which sits on higher ground offering potential control of a wider area. Its capture would also give Russia more options to attack Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region to the west, which is not one of the areas which Moscow has claimed but where it says it has already established a small foothold. WHAT IS UKRAINE DOING TO DEFEND POKROVSK? Ukraine's top military commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi - who said in May that Ukraine had stalled the long grinding Russian offensive on Pokrovsk and even pushed back in some areas - said on Friday that his forces were standing firm. Ukrainian officials say Russia has relentlessly pounded their forces with artillery, glide bombs, and drones and sent in small groups of fighters to try to gain ground rather than commit large groups of infantry or armoured vehicles. Russia has 111,000 soldiers in the Pokrovsk area, Syrskyi has estimated. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has made various senior personnel changes in the army during the city's defence. Ukraine says Moscow has sustained huge losses after throwing everything it has at trying to break through. Moscow says Ukrainian forces are taking serious losses. Neither side discloses full casualty figures. EVACUATION Ukrainian authorities have worked hard to try to persuade the city's remaining and mostly elderly and sick residents to evacuate. Dobriak, the head of the military administration, said on Monday that evacuation vehicles could no longer reach many areas and that people had to leave on foot. He said it was increasingly hard to deliver food and that food stores would have to close in the coming days. One of the main roads in, which Ukrainian forces call "the road of life," is covered by anti-drone nets to try to protect vehicles from Russian drone strikes. WHAT DOES POKROVSK LOOK LIKE NOW? Even though the blue and yellow Ukrainian flag is still flying in Pokrovsk, the city is a shadow of its former self, with no electricity, gas, heating or piped water. Reuters footage published on May 21 showed the facades of apartment blocks badly damaged, deserted streets strewn with debris, and a few elderly residents and people on bicycles. Shellfire was audible and the roads were pockmarked with shell impacts and the wreckage of vehicles. (Reporting by Andrew Osborn in Moscow and Anastasiia Malenko in KyivEditing by Peter Graff)
