Hundreds of migrants held in detention centre
TAPACHULA: Hundreds of migrants from Africa, the Caribbean and Central America found themselves corralled in a migrant detention facility in southern Mexico on Sunday after a futile attempt to head north as part of a caravan aiming to reach the United States.
The group set out before sunrise on Saturday from the town of Tapachula, where many had been marooned for months trying to get transit visas.
Just before dusk, after having trudged more than 32km north, they were surrounded by hundreds of National Guard agents and police who persuaded the exhausted migrants to board vans back to Tapachula. Children cried, and women complained angrily about waiting months for papers. It was unclear if any would be deported.
The crackdown on the caravan, many of whose members were of African descent, underlined the sharp reversal from the immigration policy at work in Mexico a year ago, when officials looked the other way as large groups of migrants traversed the country heading for the US But under pressure from Washington, the government has been taking a tougher stance in dealing with migrants, and many Mexicans are being less welcoming.
Salva Lacruz, from the Fray Matias de Cordova Human Rights Center in Tapachula, called the roundup a “human hunt’’ and noted officials waited until the migrants had tired out before forcing them into vans.
Sending the migrants back south was an “exercise in cruelty’,’ Mr Lacruz said, saying the migrants have come to Mexico because “they need international protection’.’
About half of the migrants in the caravan were black, including Haitians, estimated Mr Lacruz, who accompanied the group.
Wilner Metelus, a Mexican activist who was born in Haiti, described the government’s behaviour toward migrants of African descent as “shameful’.’
“Today the Afro-descendants are alone,’’ he said.
“Migrants of African descent don’t represent a threat to Mexicans. Many of them are highly educated and could offer a lot to the country,’’ Mr Metelus added.
The National Migration Institute said in a statement on Saturday that each member of the caravan will be treated in a personalised manner and that some will be returned to their countries of origin.
The situation for migrants in Mexico has changed dramatically since a caravan set out exactly a year ago from San Pedro Sula, Honduras. That group swelled at its height to 7,000 migrants
who banded together to find safety in numbers as they trudged through Guatemala and then Mexico in an attempt to reach the US.
Mexicans greeted that caravan with fruit, tortillas and water, while mayors cleared space for the large group to sleep in town squares. Some cities even received the caravan with music.