After more than three decades away from home, Gasteiztarra Emilio Martínez de Marigorta, the crowded Félix Manzanos and Iñaki Rodríguez are deported politicians in the Basque Country. The first two have been in Cape Verde for 33 years, after being deported from Algeria in 1989, when the talks between ETA and the Spanish Government failed.

For his part, Rodríguez has served 37 years outside Euskal Herria, after being arrested and confined in 1985, he was first transferred to Cape Verde and then to Cuba.

Etxerat reports that the three have returned to Euskal Herria this summer. The Association of Relatives and Friends of Basque Political Prisoners and Refugees recalls that there are still five political deportees who cannot return home and 24 exiles.

The first political deportations began in the late 1980s and carried as punishment at least 70 people to other remote parts of the world. In addition, 12 of them have died without returning home.

Etxerat explains that the damages of deportation are also suffered by the residents: "For example, the relatives of the deportees who for many years are forced to travel thousands of kilometers to maintain the affective bond."