TAPACHULA – The sixth migrant caravan, the third formed this week, which left on Friday from the Mexican city of Tapachula, bordering Guatemala, came to an end this Saturday after advancing 40 kilometers and surrender to the agents of the National Institute of Migration (INM) in the municipality of Huixtla.
Worn out, hungry, thirsty and without the courage to undertake the hike, this group close to 131 migrants traveled from Tapachula to Huixtla under burning asphalt caused by temperatures above 36 degrees.
The migrants, uncertain and fearful of being locked up in a migration station, accepted the dialogue and the proposal to turn themselves in and get on the vans that the INM arranged for their transfer.
The agents of Migration assisted the families that brought children after they had walked during Friday and part of Saturday under the sun and heavy rains.
This group, which left Tapachula on Friday, divided up in the municipality of Huehuetán, after walking 26 kilometres.
The first group boarded public service vehicles and headed to the municipality of Huixtla, while the rest of the people arrived at the Huehuetán dome where they stayed overnight until this weekend.
This Saturday morning, the caravan resumed its journey at 6: 00 am and walked slowly forward, followed by agents of the Highway Police because the migrants closed both lanes of the highway, causing road chaos.
Caravans migrate Migrants on the southern border of Mexico have become unstoppable as their members seek to walk out of Tapachula every day in search of other immigration regularization offices where they can obtain their documents.
Getting to the northern border
A migrant from Nicaragua, Bayardo Castillo, who travels with his family to get to The United States, seeking to improve their quality of life, told Efe that the only thing they are looking for is to obtain a visa for humanitarian reasons and be able to cross to the northern border.
“We have been walking for two days, without having water, no food. We are going to see what we do because in Tapachula it is full of people, there are no employment options, people look at you badly and do not help you”, he explained.
His first objective was to reach the municipality of Huixtla to see if the immigration authorities complied with the immigration procedures that they were promised.
A caravan of Central American migrants is dissolved today by authorities Mexican migrants, in the municipality of Huixtla, state of Chiapas, Mexico. (Photo: Juan Manuel Blanco / EFE) For his part, Yanpier González Rodríguez, another Central American migrant, indicated that none of the people traveling in the caravan wants to stay in Mexico, so it is necessary for the authorities to attend to them.
“We walk because we do not have enough resources to be able to wait for the appointments before the Mexican Commission for Refugee Aid (Comar) and the INM to be able to carry out the process, since lodging and food are needed to wait and get the papers because that it lasts several days”, he said.
In Tapachula, small groups of migrants are already organizing themselves to start their journey, alone irregularly or in a caravan, but always with the idea of reaching the United States.
From January to April, six caravans have been formed, three during this week, which were dissolved by the authorities after and foreigners will reach agreements with the migratory entity.
Migratory Wave
Mexico deported more than 114,000 foreigners in 2021, according to data from the Migration Policy Unit of the Ministry of the Interior of the country.
In addition, Comar received a record of 150,379 refugee applications in 2021. Of these petitioners, more than 26,04 are Haitians.
The INM of Mexico recently reported that from January 1 to 13 April of this year intercepted 094,448 migrants, of which one 15% were minors, mainly of Central American nations.
While in the fiscal year 2022, which started on October 1, 2021, 1 have already been posted,060,100 encounters of migrants at the border r American, according to data from the Office of Customs and Border Protection (CBP).