More than 10,000 migrants left Mexico's southern border this Sunday in the middle of Christmas Eve, putting pressure on both governments ahead of the arrival of a US delegation to address the migration crisis.
Thousands of migrants from 24 nationalities walked early this Sunday from the border town of Tapachula in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas to Alvaro Obregon, where they will spend a troubled Christmas.
This group of people, mostly children, women and entire families, walked along Federal Highway 200 and passed the first checkpoint of Ejido Viva México, where only personnel from the National Guard and the National Institute of Migration (INM) saw them.
The civil protection representative, Julisa Esther Briones Magana, confirmed to EFE that 10,000 people are in the context of the movement, which is why she recommended that the migrant population protect their health and that of their children, while asking the drivers. Drive cautiously as people leave in droves.
According to Luis Rey García Villagrán, director of the Center for Human Dignity (CDH), the caravan is the largest exodus this year and may exceed 15,000 people.
“This group that we lead has a plug and a human knot, we tell the Mexican government that it has no choice but to walk the road to the finger of the INM and President Andrés. Manuel López Obrador, say yes or no. Today we need Among those at the top are the poorest, who don't have money to pay for visas or boleros,” Villagran said.
Read: Over 6,000 Migrants Process Their RFC in SAT to Work in Mexico
Jesus Silva, a Venezuelan immigrant traveling with his wife, told EFE that immigration agents in Ciudad Hidalgo loaded him into a compartment and took him to the Chiclo 21 immigration station, where he was given a document to leave Mexico.
“The choice is to actually walk, I trust the caravan because we feel safe with the Latin brothers who leave with a new dream and hope for life,” Silva shared.
Honduran immigrant Jose Wilmar Fernandez Caballero, who showed his positive resolve at the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (COMAR), tried to leave Chiapas, but immigration officials tell him it was futile and useless.
“All this time in the tank, wasted, they always take me off and return me, here is a positive resolution, but they always drop me off the kombi (bus) and say it is worthless. ” he said.
This caravan walked for about four hours from Tapachula to Alvaro Obregon Ejito, where its members would celebrate Christmas under trees, roofs, weeds, turf, cardboard, mats and sheets, and could spend the night. Familiarity, peace and great joy, but they have made this journey to reach America.
With information from Efe.
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