The second caravan of migrants this year that left the Mexican city of Tapachula, on the border with Guatemala, last Friday with the aim of reaching Mexico City, ended this Sunday by surrendering to the authorities of the Migration’s national institute.
The caravan, called “migrant viacrucis” for its proximity to Holy Week, lasted three days and barely advanced regarding 16 kilometers to the community of Álvaro Obregón, practically at the exit of Tapachula, where this Sunday some 400 migrants agreed to end their limited journey. .
The group, made up of people from Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Peru, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Cuba, Syria and other nationalities, managed to establish a dialogue with the immigration authorities.
This is so that vehicles will be sent to the center of the Álvaro Obregón community, where they will remain for three days, and will be transferred to the Huehuetán community, from where they will be taken to the states of Tabasco and Oaxaca. In these places, according to the authorities, they will be granted visas for humanitarian reasons to continue with their destination or, if applicable, to work in Mexico.
Cuban Jorge Sánchez told Efe that he decided to turn himself in to INM agents so as not to continue walking, not have problems and be at peace.
“They take us to a place to be able to have documents, without knowing our destination,” he explained.
According to the migrant and other of his compatriots “it is increasingly difficult to be able to travel through Mexico”, for this reason, they are afraid to continue walking and are very distrustful, because when they arrive in Mexican territory they are taken to the Siglo XXI immigration station in Tapachula. .
While the Salvadoran Walter Bladimir Martínez said he had “distrust” of going with Immigration because he does not know where they will take him.
Until this Sunday, the caravan had a record of 456 people, while last Friday, regarding 90 migrants who had been detained already have documents, reported the director of the organization Center for Human Dignification in Tapachula, Luis Rey García Villagrán.
The activist pointed out that the INM was able to serve the migrants; however, he said he disagreed due to the methodology used by the institute because there is a mistrust of foreigners regarding where they will go.
In addition, he said that they will provide timely follow-up so that they can see that the documents are valid throughout the country.
The migrants tried to talk to the immigration authorities since Friday, but when they did not receive a response, they pressed with actions such as sewing their lips with a needle and thread and declaring a hunger strike.
This Sunday, the INM representative in Chiapas, Paola López Rodas, sought to solve the problem, but the migrants wanted her to sign a long list of names and condition her to deliver documents, but the official told them that the regularization processes would take place in Tabasco and Oaxaca.
Although they resisted, the migrants agreed to surrender and get into the INM vehicles without incident, since the foreigners indicated that they did not want violence and the only thing they were looking for was to be transferred to other entities to obtain their immigration documents. .
This is the second migrant caravan of the year, following a first contingent of regarding 500 people that left last January, but barely advanced regarding 20 kilometers due to pressure from the authorities.
In September of last year, the Mexican authorities frustrated the advance of four migrant caravans that left precisely from Tapachula.
Then, several UN agencies and NGOs criticized the use of force in the operations to break up these caravans.
Another caravan, which walked for more than a month, arrived in Mexico City in mid-December.
migratory wave
The region is experiencing a record flow of migrants to the United States, whose Customs and Border Protection (CBP) office detected more than 1.7 million undocumented immigrants on the border with Mexico in fiscal year 2021, which ended on September 30.
Mexico deported more than 114,000 foreigners in 2021, according to data from the Migration Policy Unit of the country’s Ministry of the Interior.
In addition, the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance received a record 131,448 refugee applications in 2021. Of these petitioners, more than 51,000 are Haitians.
