Q24N (EFE) Migrant caravans are multiplying on Mexico’s southern border ahead of Donald Trump’s presidency in the United States, with six in the last few weeks alone, according to documents from Médicos Sin Fronteras (MSF) – Doctors Without Borders, which warns of growing challenges for people in transit.
“During the period from September 24 to November 8, Doctors Without Borders has provided assistance to eight caravans made up of some 5,000 people, six of which have occurred in the last few weeks of this month,” Daniel Bruce, head of MSF’s base operations in Tapachula, the largest city on the border between Mexico and Central America, told EFE.
The activist urged Mexican authorities to provide safe migration routes and guarantee access to health care, as “they have detected effects from diseases, acute stress and post-traumatic stress.”
– Advertisement –
He added that since the end of October, MSF has doubled mobile assistance with hundreds of consultations for the states of Chiapas, Oaxaca and Veracruz, in the south of the country, due to the caravans that move to the north of Mexico, where they gather in groups to reduce the impact of violence.
This significant increase in caravans has occurred for multifactorial reasons, he explained, specifically due to the delay in legal processes, the difficulty of requesting refuge in Mexico and the complications in accessing the ‘CBP One’ application to request an asylum appointment in the United States.
Regarding Trump’s election, Bruce said that MSF is an independent, neutral and impartial organization that knows first-hand the impacts of restrictive immigration policies, and hopes that whoever governs, no matter who it is, recognizes the rights of migrants and the existence of a humanitarian crisis.
Migrants speed up their passage due to fear of Trump
Despite a 76% drop in daily migrant detentions at the US border since December 2023, according to the Mexican government, irregular migration through Mexico rose 193% year-on-year to a record of more than 712,000 people, according to the Migration Policy Unit.
Migrants are speeding up their passage due to fear of mass deportations and the use of the Army in immigration tasks that Trump confirmed this week.
Venezuelan Joan Cortés told EFE that during his trip to southern Mexico he saw thousands of migrants who come in groups through Central America due to crises such as the one in Venezuela.
– Advertisement –
He said that he left the country after the July elections in Venezuela in which President Nicolás Maduro was declared re-elected, so he doubts that migration will end despite Trump’s arrival.
“In any case (despite Trump), we are going to try to get to Mexico City to request the ‘CBP One’, which is the appointment to be able to enter the United States, so that they receive each one of us according to our status and whoever is a criminal in Venezuela is a criminal anywhere in the world,” he said.
His compatriot Julio César Castillo has been waiting 48 days for the ‘CBP One’ appointment in Tapachula, where he said that there are thousands of migrants in transit through Central and South America who are looking to get to Mexico before Trump’s inauguration on January 20.
He acknowledges that “the political situation with President Donald Trump is strong because he comes with a strong, aggressive policy against migrants.”
– Advertisement –
“And he says that he is going to deport migrants who have behavioral problems, people who are murderers, criminals, because they just will pay for the sinners, because even if he has not committed a crime, they will put him in the hole,” he commented.
– Advertisement –
Source link
Rico
