CARACAS, July 15. /TASS/. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has lambasted UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk’s work as inefficient, calling him "an agent of the US government and imperialist Europe."

According to the local Telesur television channel, the Venezuelan leader asked the UN human rights commissioner to intervene in the situation around the deportation of 252 Venezuelan nationals from the United States to El Salvador, where they were placed in prison. Turk promised to engage in dialogue with Washington on this matter, but he has so far not followed through and the Venezuelans are still held in El Salvador.

"Why is Volker Turk doing nothing? <…> He is an agent of the US government and imperialist Europe," the TV channel quoted Maduro as saying.

Since taking office in January 2025, US President Donald Trump has been adamant that the country needs to toughen its migration policy. Thus, he announced plans for the largest-ever deportation of illegal migrants in US history. He signed a proclamation based on the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts, which envisages to immediately arrest and expel from the United States members of the Tren de Aragua transnational criminal group originating from Venezuela. More than 250 Venezuelan citizens have been deported to El Salvador and placed in a strict security prison without any court ruling.

Since early 2025, more than 4,000 migrants have been expelled from the United States to Venezuela. On May 30, the US Supreme Court ruled to strip 500,000 migrants from Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba, and Nicaragua of humanitarian legal status.