MORGANTOWN — Devinne Sparks, one of 16 members of the Morgantown Church of Christ stranded in Honduras since March 14 due COVID-19 travel restrictions, said the group was on its way home.
“We are boarding a flight right now to go home,” Sparks texted in response to a request by The Dominion Post on Thursday afternoon.
According to a report issued by Reuters on Thursday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the State Department are using ICE aircraft to bring U.S. citizens home from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
The group arrived in Honduras on March 14 for a week long missions trip. Hours after arriving, they were advised to board a plane and return home due to the rapidly changing situation surrounding COVID-19.
But travel restrictions implemented within Honduras as well as the country’s decision to close its borders — meaning no flights in or out of the country — quickly made that impossible and the group took up residence in a missions compound while members reached out to elected officials and the U.S. Embassy in Honduras seeking assistance.
According to the Reuters report, the State Department is tracking 50,000 U.S. citizens stranded abroad due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.
