Tired and without money, hundreds of migrants in caravan return to southern Mexico

Hundreds of migrants, mostly Haitians, began to return to the starting point of a large caravan that began on the eve of South of Mexico, accusing fatigue, lack of money and little support from the authorities to be transferred, as promised last week.

Entire families, carrying their belongings on their backs, began to walk the 25 kilometers that separate Huehuetán from Tapachula, near the border with Guatemala, after authorities notified them that they would not be taken to other regions of the country immediately, despite the pressure they made with roadblocks.

“I’m going to Tapachula (…) everything is difficult: the money (money) has run out; nobody wants to help us,” Bruno Noel, a Haitian migrant who was walking to Tapachula, told Reuters. “I don’t know what we’re going to live on,” he added, visibly tired, carrying a large backpack on his back.

Like Noel, hundreds of other migrants began to return to Tapachula on Tuesday, where they said they will wait for the authorities’ response to be transferred to other regions of the country to regularize their immigration status and find employment.

Last week, Mexican authorities began the transfer by buses of thousands of migrants who were stranded for months in Tapachula, to other regions of the country, promising to regularize their immigration status, amid pressure with roadblocks.

“Blocking streets is a crime (…) from the moment they continue to block streets, they will not only be migrants, they will be criminals,” Hugo Cuellar, from the National Institute of Migration (INM).

“You decided to march (…) you cannot demand that tomorrow or the day after we take everyone out, we are going to take them out (transport them) gradually (…) a lot of money is being invested for this,” he added.

The INM was not immediately available to comment on Cuellar’s statements.

Migrants interviewed by Reuters assured that several of them were sick enough to continue on foot, including their children or wives, and that this situation was, to a large extent, the one that forced them not to continue their journey.

Luis García, one of the organizers of the caravan told Reuters that about 800 migrants were returning to Tapachula because they were also threatened by authorities of being deported or blocked with the public force.