RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) -- Dozens of Brazilian migrants deported by the United States pointed to the appalling treatment they suffered both during their detention and on their return journey, local news site G1 reported Saturday.
The deportees had been handcuffed on the plane back to Brazil, and their luggage confiscated by the U.S. authorities, according to the statements collected by the news site of several of the 187 deportees who arrived Saturday at the Belo Horizonte Airport from the city of El Paso, Texas.
When they arrived, they were given a plastic bag with water and food at the airport, the report said, adding they had not received any food or drink before their arrival.
"We spent 10 days without showering or brushing our teeth. My wife would cry with my two-year-old son," a 27-year-old man said.
"The children were vomiting, they only received apples, juice and burritos. There was pasta and all that made them sick," said a man, who would have had to pay 90,000 reais (about 16,800 U.S. dollars) to a smuggler if he had managed to stay in the United States.
Since 2019, more than 3,000 Brazilians living illegally in the United States have been deported on 54 flights after the government of Jair Bolsonaro again began to accept deportation flights.
Brazil refused to receive the flights between 2006 and 2019. ■
