Migrant caravans are multiplying on the southern border of Mexico ahead of Donald Trump’s presidency in the United States, with six in the last few weeks alone, according to documents from Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which warns of increasing 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,” said Daniel Bruce, head of MSF operations in Tapachula, the largest city on the border between Mexico and Central America.
The activist urged the Mexican authorities to provide safe migration routes and guarantee access to health care, since “they have detected effects from diseases, acute stress and post-traumatic stress.”
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, for the caravans that move to the north of Mexico, where they meet in groups to reduce the impact of violence.
Why are migrant caravans increasing?
This significant increase in caravans has occurred for multifactorial reasons, he explained, specifically because 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 the impacts of restrictive immigration policies firsthand, and hopes that the person who governs, no matter who it is, recognizes the rights of migrants and the existence of a humanitarian crisis.
Migrants speed up the passage due to fear of Trump
Despite a 76% drop in daily migrant detentions at the US border since December, 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 the passage due to fear of mass deportations and the use of the Army in immigration tasks that Trump confirmed this week.
Venezuelan Joan Cortés said that during his trip to southern Mexico he saw thousands of migrants who come in groups through Central America due to crises like the one in Venezuela.
He said that he left the country after the July elections 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 explained 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 recognizes that “the political situation with President Donald Trump is strong because he comes with a strong, aggressive policy against migrants.”
And he says that he is going to deport migrants who have behavioral problems, people who are murderers, criminals, because the just will pay for the sinners, because just as well, even if he has not committed a crime, they will put him in the hole,” he commented.
Source: nmas
