Thousands of migrants are left adrift in southern Mexico

Thousands of migrants drift along the Pan-American highway in southern Mexicoafter the closure of the migration module of the National Institute of Migration (INM) to provisionally regularize undocumented immigrants from Central and South America, Haiti, Cuba and the Middle East.

The INM closed the center that it installed on August 5 in San Pedro Tapanatepec, in the state of Oaxaca, forcing thousands of migrants to leave the area this week and walk a stretch of nearly 100 kilometers to Juchitán, just on the eve of to celebrate World Migrants Day on Sunday.

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Weakened by the walk, with or without water, and with children in tow, the foreigners insist that the INM grant them a provisional permit to cross Mexico to the northern border.

On the journey, they face the risk of an accident among the thousands of cargo vehicles with up to three trailers that circulate in that section and dehydration in the high temperatures.

Along with a group of migrants from Ecuador, Mirna Josel walks, a migrant from Nicaragua who, while advancing through the section of La Ventosa, told EFE about the painful journey.

“They didn’t want to give us permission, they told us until January, and now we are going in a caravan to get there to the destination we have to reach. It is tiring, we have been with today for two days, but thank God that, even though they have not given us permission, we continue to move forward, ”he mentioned.

MIGRATION DOES NOT STOP

The situation reflects the growing migration in Mexico, where the Ministry of the Interior (Segob) detected 345,644 “people in an irregular migratory situation” in the first 10 months of 2022, an annual increase of more than 32%.

Despite the challenges of the road, entire families continue advancing from Tapanatepec, in some sections monitored by the National Guard.

The groups of migrants plan to continue on their way to the city of Oaxaca, where they will insist that the INM grant them a migratory regularization permit.

Meanwhile, in Tapanatepec, dozens of migrants withdrew their makeshift camps in front of the old INM module, but hundreds more continue to arrive.

Pablo Sánchez left his wife and three daughters, ages 11, 8 and 4, in Ecuador.

He told them that once he got a job in the United States, he would do his best to take them with him, but now that plan may be delayed because he does not have a permit to be in Mexico.

“The hardest thing was leaving my family and now without permission it is the only thing that motivated me to come here and have permission to go up to the United States, there are no permits they do not say anything, sometimes they enter sometimes they leave, we just want to move from here, reach our destination, we don’t want to stay in Mexico”, he told EFE.

A saturated southern border

According to the mayor of Tapanatepec, Humberto Parrazales, the migration module closed to prevent this municipality, located in the eastern part of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, from continuing to crowd with thousands of migrants.

Only in November, the municipality registered the influx of more than 16,000 migrants in a community that does not exceed 10,000 inhabitants.

“The module has been completely closed for three days, as you can see the March 21 sports field is already empty, there is not a single tent and foreign people come, they come lying to them, telling them that they will be able to take them out your multiple immigration format in exchange for 300 dollars or 500 dollars”he assured.

The mayor asked that his municipality “let off steam” about migrants.

“None of them want to stay, they all want to walk, none of them want to stay and live in MexicoThey want to get to the United States, that’s why today I came to tell them as mayor that they no longer spend and that they support me and that they walk,” manifested.

What is happening in southern Mexico also reflects a record migratory flow to the United States, whose Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Office detained an unprecedented number of more than 2.76 million undocumented immigrants in fiscal year 2022. .

Source: Elcomercio

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I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.