More than 600 migrants have been located this weekend when they were transferred in different vehicles in the southeast of Mexico. Authorities from the National Migration Institute (INM) reported on Saturday that they had found 600 people inside two trucks in the state of Veracruz; a day later, they reported that another 36 people had been identified inside an ambulance without license plates in the state of Tabasco. Most of the migrants came from Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, where political and economic instability and violence have forced many to leave their countries. Since January, more than 100,000 people have requested protection in Mexico.
The migrants identified on Saturday in Veracruz were 455 men and 145 women, all adults according to the INM, who came from 12 countries. The majority, 67%, were from Guatemala, and the rest from Honduras, Nicaragua, Cuba, El Salvador, Venezuela, Bangladesh, Ecuador, Ghana, India, the Dominican Republic and Cameroon. The people found inside an ambulance on Sunday, on the other hand, were all Central Americans and among them were 11 minors. The driver of this vehicle was made available to the Attorney General’s Office (FGR). The public prosecutor has not given more information about the case to this newspaper.
The INM has reported in a statement that currently “the immigration administrative procedure is being carried out” of the persons identified inside the vehicles. According to the institute, people traveling with children or minors who are alone have been informed about “the instances of child protection.” The options given by the authorities are “an assisted return” to a country from which they had to flee or “remain in the country. [México] through a regularization procedure ”. But immigration offices are overwhelmed by the record arrival of migrants. Between January and October 2021, the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (Comar) received 108,195 requests for protection. La Comar operates overwhelmed and with less budget than last year.
Hundreds of people are illegally transferred or held in overcrowded conditions in transit through Mexico. Migrants pay money to groups that promise their arrival in the United States. In October, 652 people were located in the state of Tamaulipas aboard three trailers without ventilation, according to the INM. Of them, 349 were minors. At the end of that month, the National Guard fired on a van carrying 13 people from Cuba, Haiti, Brazil and Ghana, killing two Cubans. Just a week ago, the INM found 195 Central American migrants crammed without food or water in a Nuevo León hotel following a complaint from the State Investigations Agency.
The location of more than 600 migrants this weekend happens while a caravan of more than 1,500 people from Venezuela, Haiti and Central America advances through Mexico. The group, which left Tapachula, Chiapas, on Thursday and stopped its march for the weekend, warned that this Monday it would resume the road divided in two. They are exhausted and many have already used all the money they had. Half of the original group has already given up on reaching the United States, according to data from the National Migration Institute. 50% of the migrants have accepted the visitor cards for humanitarian reasons issued by the Mexican government.
On the way to the United States, they have gone through all kinds of violent situations, such as robberies, rapes, torture, extortion, and murder, with the false idea that they will receive it in the United States. But in the north border, the Texas police already shielded the crossing between the cities of Eagle Pass and Piedras Negras with cargo containers before the possible arrival of the caravan. Many will choose to ask for protection in Mexico, which has ceased to be just a country of passage to become one also a destination for migrants. The Government of Mexico and the United States agreed in October to “expand cooperation” to control the flow of irregular migration at the border and agreed on the need to promote economic measures in Central American countries to reduce poverty and mafia violence. and gangs in the region.
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