Starting this week, the migrants sent by the United States by air to Chiapas and Tabasco are now expelled by the Government of Mexico to Honduras, crossing Guatemala by land.
In addition to the violent operations to prevent migrants awaiting their asylum processes in Chiapas from moving towards the center of the country, the National Migration Institute (INM) completed a month expressly deporting an average of 5,000 foreigners a week, according to estimates by the Guatemalan Human Rights Ombudsman.
At the beginning of last month, REFORMA found that Mexican authorities abandon Central American migrants at the border with Guatemala, including children and pregnant women, deported by air from the United States.
That country has also expanded the routes to expel migrants under Title 42 to Mexico, without processing them in its territory, because in addition to the air routes from Laredo and Brownsville, Texas, to Villahermosa, Tabasco, and from McAllen to Tapachula, Chiapas Lately, flights have been registered from Houston to Tabasco.
Meanwhile, the organization Asylum Access Mexico has detected that foreigners expelled from the US by land at the border with Mexico are transferred south by plane by the INM from Monterrey and Ciudad Juárez.
This week, the organization’s director, Alejandra Macías, was in El Ceibo, a border crossing with Guatemala located in Tenosique, Tabasco, where she observed express expulsions, without normal immigration procedures.
As of Wednesday they changed the logistics, and what they were doing was passing only the buses, then, they lowered people from the Mexican side, they crossed walking and they were already waiting for them to get on the buses from the Guatemala side” he commented.
“It is important to mention that this is coordinated by the National Migration Institute, although the buses are from tourism companies, some from ETN and others from Turistar, all of them have a little sign in front that says INM.”
In a telephone interview, the Guatemalan Human Rights Ombudsman, Jordán Rodas, confirmed that the buses are arranged by the Mexican government to carry foreigners expelled under US Title 42.
“The drama will be transferred to the El Corinto border, with Honduras, because there the Hondurans and Salvadorans will be transferred, and the Guatemalans will go to Tecún Umán,” he explained.
Without following the process
In an internal report dated September 1, of which REFORMA has a copy, the Guatemalan Migration Institute reported that Mexico expels people through El Ceibo without due process, without guarantees of identifying family units, without identification documents and with various hours without eating.
“The services that the Government of Mexico provides to migrants are unknown,” the document states.
It is added that since August 10, they established that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would ask Mexico that the expulsions be through the border posts of Tecún Umán and El Carmen, since El Ceibo lacks the adequate infrastructure.
According to the report, on average, each day about 300 migrants enter Guatemala on board nine buses; However, when questioned in this regard, Attorney General Jordán Rodas considered that the figure falls short.
“In the last week there were around 5 thousand people expelled by Mexico, in the official data there are fewer, but I could see how physically it was impossible to keep the entire record,” he said.
Among those who are expelled expressly from the United States to Guatemala, with the help of Mexico, are inhabitants of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Belize, Venezuela, Colombia, Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Many of them with international protection needs, as documented by Asylum Access, which in the last 15 days has taken the legal representation of some 40 people.
A fourth migrant caravan departs from the southern border of Mexico
The group of migrants, among whom families move, walks peacefully on the federal highway without the presence, so far, of the security forces.
After the disintegration of three migrant caravans by the Mexican authorities during the week, a fourth made up of mostly Central Americans, Venezuelans, Cubans and Haitians left this Saturday from the municipality of Tapachula, in the state of Chiapas ( southeast) to northern Mexico.
The mobilization began around 07:00 hours (12:00 GMT) in the center of Tapachula, on the border with Guatemala, and their walk began on the Tapachula-Tapanatepec highway section.
The objective of the migrants for this day is to reach the first migratory step in the municipality of Huehuetán, located about 26 kilometers from Tapachula, this despite the surveillance and harassment of the Mexican authorities that have mounted operations to arrest the three groups of previous migrants.
On their departure, some migrants, among whom men, women and children could be observed, argued that they are desperate, bored and without financial resources to continue waiting for the issuance of official documents that allow them to stay or transit through Mexico.
This fourth caravan of migrants has started on its way in a more organized and orderly way, caring for women and children to avoid being detained in a surprise manner by agents of the National Migration Institute (INM) and the National Guard (GN).
The group of migrants, among whom families move, walks peacefully on the federal highway without the presence, so far, of the security forces.
Precisely, the Mexican agents arrived at dawn on Saturday to make a presence in the Miguel Hidalgo central park, in the center of Tapachula, the main meeting point for migrants to organize and leave in this mass exodus, trying to dissuade the mass exodus.
But despite their presence, the migrants chose to take several streets to leave the city amid complaints against the authorities for not allowing them to advance to the northern border of the country.
This caravan left, less than 48 hours after the third caravan was dissolved, which also left Tapachula on Wednesday.
Since last weekend in the region, three migrant caravans have been formed and although they advanced tens of kilometers they were finally dissolved by the National Guard and other federal authorities.
Last Thursday, the Mexican authorities dispersed the third migrant caravan . The three caravans formed during the week left Tapachula, as did the fourth, with hundreds of migrants, mostly Haitians, Central Americans, Cubans and Venezuelans.
But the security forces dissolved them although UN organizations and agencies denounced that the Mexican agents used excessive use of force.
Questioned on the subject, the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, declared on Thursday that next week he will send a letter to his US counterpart, Joe Biden, to insist that he address the “causes” of forced migration and offer visas. temporary work for Central Americans.
This week, the National Migration Institute reported that from January 1 to August 31, Mexico has identified 147,033 migrants in irregular status in the country .
Source: efe.com, lucesdelsiglo.com
