By Xinhua,
Quito : At least 92 Ecuadorian illegal immigrants returned to their home country, two days after being rescued on the high seas by the US coastguards, Ecuador’s navy reported.
The Ecuadorians were aboard a dilapidated boat without licences or flags, some 344 km west of Costa Rica, when the US coastguards rescued them Thursday, the Ecuadorian navy said in a bulletin.
The boat named Paco was first spotted by a US airplane, which then reported to the coastguards. Subsequently a rescue operation was launched.
According to a government estimate, some two million Ecuadorians live overseas, most of them in the US, Spain and Italy. The number has increased following the 1998-99 financial crisis in the South American country.
Some reports say the figure is three million.