Desperate to be transferred to other regions of the country to regularize your immigration status and get a jobThousands of mostly Haitian people began camping this week in southern Mexico, according to Reuters witnesses and the migrants themselves.
Last week the government of Mexico began transferring hundreds of them who had waited for months in Tapachula, a city on the border with Guatemala, to various regions of the country in response to their request to obtain a humanitarian visa or refuge. However, thousands more waited.
“I have been sleeping here for five days … my family and I cannot continue to endure hunger and thirst, and sleeping on the street,” said Roldy, a Haitian who came to southern Mexico with his wife and daughter.
“There are people who already have a protocol (permission) to leave but they do not let us leave, I have had it for four months,” lamented the young man while staying at a soccer stadium in Tapachula that months ago was enabled to receive the procedures of the migrants. In the zone there would be about 5,000 migrants, according to Reuters witnesses.
According to Reuters witnesses, the new camp looks dirty, with a long line of makeshift tents with old rags and metal fences that were used last week to control access to buses that the National Institute of Migration (INM) used to transport people.
In order not to lose their turn when the new buses arrive, some migrants engage in momentary fights when they notice that someone wants to “get in line.” Many of them assured Reuters that every day is a challenge to overcome hunger and homelessness, since there are no jobs in Tapachula.
“We cannot leave the camp, we want to secure our place,” Eliot John, a Haitian who is sleeping there for his fourth day, told Reuters by phone. “We do not want to go in a caravan because with us there are children and pregnant women, it is much more dangerous,” he added.
The INM did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for information on the case.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx