Tapachula in Mexico: More than 2000 migrants set off for the US border

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A group of migrants moves north on the coastal road

Photo: Marco Ugarte / dpa

In Tapachula in southern Mexico, more than 2000 people have come together and headed north.

It was mainly Central Americans, but also Haitians and Africans, said the activist Irineo Mujica from the organization "Pueblo Sin Fronteras", who accompanied the migrants, to the German Press Agency.

Accordingly, they managed to move forward despite the deployment of personnel from the migration authorities and security forces. “If they want to keep us from getting through, it's up to them. But we're going and nobody is stopping us. ”The group was able to continue on their way on Sunday under difficult climatic conditions, as reported by the Mexican newspaper“ El Milenio ”. The migrants had passed a checkpoint in the midst of scuffle, wrote the newspaper "El Universal".

The first destination of the migrants is Mexico City.

Some said they wanted to go to the United States.

"We're fighting to see if we can get to the northern border," said the Nicaraguan Antonio López of the dpa.

He had been stuck in Tapachula for five months, waiting for an opportunity to head north.

Now he wants to go to Tijuana in search of the American dream.

more on the subject

• Migrants at the US border: "How the decision is made who has to go is unclear" A video by Andreas Evelt

• Immigration under Joe Biden: How the US is outsourcing its migration problem to MexicoBy Nicola Abé, São Paulo

• Mexico's proposal for a migration summit with the USA: On the wrong track by Jens Glüsing and Marc Pitzke, Rio de Janeiro and New York

Security forces stopped hundreds of migrants in August

In August, several hundred Haitians, Cubans and Central Americans leaving Tapachula were stopped by Mexican security forces.

Mexico requires migrants applying for humanitarian visas or asylum to stay in the southern border state of Chiapas while their cases are being processed.

For some years now, migrants in the region have increasingly come together in groups to protect themselves against violence and deportation.

Activist Irineo Mujica says: "These are the weakest who could not go on their own because the migration authorities pick them up and send them back."

tfb / dpa