Several dozen citizens of Uzbekistan who didn’t have legal authorization to remain in the United States were deported from the U.S. to their home country over the weekend, the U.S. Embassy in Tashkent said. 

The embassy said the operation to return the 39 nationals concluded on Sunday and it thanked Uzbekistan’s government “for its close cooperation in facilitating U.S. deportation operations.”

Uzbekistan has collaborated with the United States on previous deportations of its citizens this year, funding a similar flight in April though it later said that its repatriated citizens should pay for their travel. 

In a sign of improving relations, U.S. President Donald Trump and President Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan spoke about working together on trade, security and other issues in a telephone conversation on Friday.

The Trump administration has conducted numerous deportation flights, many of them to Central America, as part of what it describes as an effort to secure U.S. borders. Critics describe the U.S. immigration crackdown as heavy-handed. Last week, hundreds of South Korean workers were arrested at a factory in the U.S. state of Georgia and the South Korean government said it would bring them home on a charter flight.