Catholic church shelters in Matamoros, Ciudad Juárez and Piedras Negras, on the Mexican border, reported the returns to The Associated Press. The International Organisation for Migration confirmed in a brief message that it was aware of this but did not give details. The authorities did not offer information in this regard.

The deportations are part of a plan announced Wednesday by the US and Mexican governments, under which the White House will accept up to 24,000 Venezuelan migrants who pre-register for the programmme and arrive by air. Mexico, for its part, will receive those expelled from the US who cross irregularly by land, as had been customary in the last year.

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Thousands of migrants are stuck on the European Union's eastern frontier in what the EU says is a crisis Minsk engineered by distributing Belarusian visas in the Middle East, flying them in and letting them go to the border.

In a video message for the Geneva-based International Organization for Migration's (IOM) 70th anniversary, Francis said denying migrants their basic dignity was against the tenets of most religions.

"Even more regrettable is the fact that migrants are increasingly being used as bargaining chips, as pawns on a chessboard, victims of political rivalries," Francis said.

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