Colombia expels 17 members of Haredi Jewish sect Lev Tahor to the US

Colombia says it has sent 26 members of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect Lev Tahor to the United States after determining that the rights of some of the children in the group are at risk.

Authorities detained the group of 17 children and nine adults on November 22 following a raid on their hotel in Yarumal, a city in northwestern Colombia.

Immigration officials say that while all of the children in the group are accompanied by at least one parent, there are five children with American and Guatemalan passports for whom Interpol yellow notices have been issued. The notices are global alerts issued for people who have been reported as missing or those considered victims of parental or criminal abduction.

Colombia’s national immigration agency says the group spent the past week in one of the agency’s buildings in Medellin, where the children were provided with support from Colombia’s National Institute for Family Welfare.

The group has been flown to New York, according to the agency. They have been received there by US officials, who will check if there are any pending investigations against the adults, while the children will be in the care of Child Protective Services.

Lev Tahor has run into legal problems in several countries, with its members accused of kidnapping children and forcing them into marriages with adults. The sect was founded in the 1980s and is known to have members in Canada, the US, Mexico, Guatemala and Israel.