Tulum Airport Receives 1,200 Deportees Monthly, Including Minors

Cancún, Quintana Roo — Tulum International Airport receives about 1,200 deportees per month from the United States, including unaccompanied minors who are placed in the temporary care of DIF, the state child welfare agency, while they await their families.

Arturo Álvarez Escalera, a delegate for the Office for the Protection of Children and Adolescents, said this week that 28 children are currently staying in a temporary shelter run by DIF until relatives come for them. The process is quick, he said; in many cases, family members arrive even before authorities begin looking for them.

Álvarez said most of the children are Mexican nationals from states such as Chiapas, Oaxaca, Tabasco, and several northern states. The agency is also sheltering minors from other countries, and in those cases the National Immigration Institute contacts the respective embassies, including those of Brazil, El Salvador, Cuba, and Guatemala.

Children sometimes arrive alone, with other minors, or with a parent, Álvarez said. All are kept under DIF protection while officials complete the paperwork needed for them to continue their journey to their final destination.

In a separate interview, Gerardo Jerez Ovando, general manager of Mobility ADO’s Caribbean region, said this year has been challenging for passenger transport. He said the company has launched new routes connecting hotels in central Cancún to the airport. Tulum, meanwhile, is seeing a slight recovery in activity thanks to the transfer of deportees, who arrive at its international airport and are then taken to Cancún to continue their processing.

Jerez said roughly 1,200 deportees land at the Tulum airport each month and are transported to Cancún to complete immigration procedures before returning to their home countries or cities.