Iran says 40 Iranians in ICE custody to be flown home
Iran said about 40 Iranian citizens will be returned from the United States to Iran on Sunday, after being held for months in US immigration detention centers.
Iran said about 40 Iranian citizens will be returned from the United States to Iran on Sunday, after being held for months in US immigration detention centers.
The acting head of Iran’s Interests Section in Washington told state news agency IRNA that the group will depart from Mesa Airport in Arizona, make a brief stop in Egypt and return to Iran via Kuwait.
Abolfazl Mehrabadi added the office coordinated with US immigration authorities to issue return travel documents for the detainees.
The flight is the third to repatriate Iranian asylum seekers and others whose immigration cases were halted and who were detained by US immigration authorities for various reasons.
The planned deportation has drawn criticism in the United States, with Democratic Representatives Yassamin Ansari and Dave Min, citing human rights concerns in Iran.
Iran’s foreign ministry confirmed on December 7 that 55 Iranian nationals had been detained to be deported from the United States amid President Donald Trump’s tightened immigration policies.
On September 29, a plane carrying 120 Iranians including three women landed in Iran, an Iranian expelled from the United States told Iran International, adding that detainees had faced mistreatment in US facilities and that force was used during their transfer.
