Caravan of migrants, asylum seekers on way to US grows in southern Mexico

Over 2,000 immigrants and asylum seekers, who started marching towards the southern border of the United States on 23 October, were stationed in the border state of Chiapas on Wednesday afternoon after completing another 13 kilometres of their journey across southern Mexico, the Associated Press reported. On Saturday, the migrant caravan marched out of Tapachula, a city in the south of Mexico near the Guatemalan border.  

Although the size of the crowd is difficult to comprehend, it seemed to be much bigger when it departed Huixtla after a day of rest. The leaders of the group estimated that the number to be over 4,000. On Wednesday, the immigrants arrived at the town of Villa Comaltitlan. As per the New York Post, many others in the group were holding US flags or banners featuring President Joe Biden's name. 

'The caravan is like a magnet, it goes sucking up people'

Quoting Irineo Mújica, an immigration activist with the organisation People without Borders, AP reported, “The caravan is like a magnet, it goes sucking up people, migrants who had been in the towns (of coastal Chiapas) are joining.” Furthermore, the immigrants have passed through a customs, immigration, and military checkpoint without any trouble, where police routinely confiscate narcotics and seek human smugglers. 

Earlier this year, hundreds of people marched out of Tapachula. During that time, Mexican authorities have dispersed all of them, often with disproportionate force. The majority of the people in such groupings were Haitian immigrants, while this caravan is mainly of Central American origin. On Saturday, when the National Guard tried to prevent the immigrants from Tapachula from moving forward, a minor dispute occurred injuring a little child. Since then there was no intervention from the guards.  

Further, Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Mexico, Marcelo Ebrard stated on Monday that the administration will respond "prudently" and in accordance with the law and human rights. Additionally, thousands of militaries, police officers and immigration officials have been positioned in the south by Mexico in which no large crowds have managed to go out of the states bordering Guatemala in recent years.  

Meanwhile, according to US Customs and Border Protection, detention and apprehensions along the southern border of the USA reached an all-time high in 2021. According to US Customs and Border Protection figures, about 1.7 million migrants were detained at the border in the previous fiscal year, the highest in any fiscal year on record. Following a major spike in migration to the US-Mexico border, which peaked in the summer, the numbers have grown considerably in subsequent months. Approximately 61% of migrants discovered in the previous year were returned to Mexico or their home countries, according to government figures. 

(Image: AP)