The Mexican immigration authorities reported this Saturday that they reached an agreement with the
thousands of migrants traveling in a caravan through the south of the country to reach the United States.
The National Migration Institute (INM) said that more than 7,000 undocumented migrants who made up this caravan will receive permits to move freely through Mexico, better known as Multiple Migratory Forms.
Migrants talk with Mexican authorities in the municipality of Mapastepec, Chiapas, to obtain a free transit permit, on June 11, 2022. EFE
The agreement was reached on Friday night, when some 1,500 migrants, those considered most vulnerable (including families and children), were transferred by bus to the Huixtla checkpoint, so that on Monday they can begin their regularization process. , reported the EFE news agency.
The migrants boarded the trucks arranged by the Mexican authorities amid jostling and protests
, after they had advanced on foot some 62 miles (100 kilometers) from the border with Guatemala to the municipality of Mapastepec.
[With pregnant and sick women, the migrant caravan advances towards the US-Mexico border]
The INM reported in a statement that it had treated almost 7,000 members of the caravan that left Tapachula on June 6.
"Foreign people were served at 110 INM windows in the different representative offices in Chiapas and they were given a migration document that proves their regular stay in the country," the agency said.
“With the agreements reached thanks to the dialogue, migrants are prevented from being victims of criminals who are dedicated to human trafficking or traffickers who expose them to insecure conditions in strenuous walks, land, rail and raft transport or other types of transportation. mobility regardless of putting their physical and psychological integrity, as well as their lives, at risk,” the authorities added in the statement.
Alone, tired but with illusions: this is how thousands of children travel in the migrant caravan
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Yovany Barona, a migrant from Venezuela who spoke with EFE, explained that she was one of the people who were transferred to the Huixtla port of entry.
"We don't know yet (what will happen), we are organizing ourselves to see what we can do, if the visas are equivalent to us, we will be able to continue, otherwise we will take a break in Mexico City," he asserted.
[Much uncertainty in the migrant caravan for humanitarian visas after a record trek]
José Morales, a Honduran migrant who was advancing with the caravan, indicated that they were told that documents would be granted to the migrant families and later to the men who were waiting for the buses sent by the Mexican government.
"We are grateful that they take us out of here, but for now we don't know, we are believing that they will give us the papers," he
said.
The Mexican port of entry in Huixtla has become the epicenter of the migration crisis in recent weeks.
Thousands of migrants from Venezuela, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Central America, Nicaragua and several African countries have concentrated there.
Dancing, by bicycle or on foot: with pregnant women and the sick, the migrant caravan advances towards the border
June 7, 202201:58
The caravan phenomenon resurfaces at a time when the United States has recorded record numbers in the arrival of undocumented immigrants: more than 1.7 million were intercepted at the border with Mexico in fiscal year 2021 (October 1, 2020 - September 30 2021).
While the Mexican government reported last weekend an increase of 89% year-on-year in the number of migrants found by the authorities in the first quarter of 2022, adding more than 77,000 from January to March.
Mexico deported more than 114,000 foreigners in 2021
, according to data from the Migration Policy Unit, figures not seen in almost 15 years, while in fiscal year 2022, which started on October 1, 2021, the United States has counted more than a million migrants intercepted at its southern border.
