Status: 10/24/2021 4:50 p.m.
For months they were stuck in a city in southern Mexico waiting for their asylum applications: more than 2000 people from Central America have now set out north. Many want to gain a foothold in the USA.
More than 2000 migrants from Central America made their way to the USA in Mexico. People left the southern Mexican city of Tapachula, pushing aside security forces who tried in vain to stop them.
There were minor scuffles and a small child suffered a minor head injury, but the people continued on their way. After a few kilometers they stopped in a village where they spent the night on a sports field. The first destination of the caravan is therefore Mexico City.
Find work in border towns
The activist Irineo Mujica from the organization “Pueblo Sin Fronteras”, who accompanied the migrants, told the dpa news agency that it was mainly Central Americans, but also Haitians and Africans. The migrants had waited with thousands of others from Honduras and El Salvador in Tapachula for their asylum applications to be processed.
“We’re fighting to see if we can get to the northern border,” said Nicaraguan Antonio López (49) of the dpa. He had been stuck in Tapachula for five months, waiting for an opportunity to head north. Now, in search of the American dream, he wants to go to Tijuana on the border with the USA.
Construction worker José Antonio from Honduras also said he had stayed in the city for two months. “There is no work there. So I was forced to join this group.” He hopes to make it to Monterrey in northern Mexico and find work there.
Hundreds stopped in August
Several hundred Haitians, Cubans and Central Americans leaving Tapachula were stopped by Mexican security forces in August. Mexico requires migrants applying for humanitarian visas or asylum to stay in the southern border state of Chiapas while their cases are being processed.
Thousands of Haitians tried to cross the border between Mexico and the United States in September. At times, more than 15,000 people waited under a bridge in the Texas border town of Del Rio. Many were brought back to their homeland on several deportation flights. Others turned back.