@Diario del Sur
On March 3rd, immigration agents located 201 migrants from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador in the trailer of a cargo truck, including 51 unaccompanied children and adolescents. This follows what happened on February 27th, when the National Guard located 156 people crammed into the back of a truck, or on February 15th, when 233 migrants were found who had spent 12 hours in an abandoned trailer 300 km from the border with Guatemala.
The Mesoamerican Migrant Movement (MMM) had documented the passage of foreigners on the train tracks that connect Chiapas with Tabasco after the announcement of a massive departure from Central America to Mexico on the condition of having a negative test for COVID-19.
The “Casa Betania Santa Marta” Shelter for migrants, located in Salto de Agua, Chiapas, also stated that since January of this year the arrival of Central American people to request lodging, food or medical attention has tripled. “In the month of January alone, 3,000 people have resorted to us, when in the same month, but in 2020, there was a record of 660 people”, while on the northern border it has been documented that 25,051 Mexicans have been repatriated between January 1st and March 1st of this year according to data from the National Institute of Migration.
Regarding unaccompanied minors, the National Migration Institute (INM) assured that they were channeled to the System for Integral Development for the Family (DIF). However, the organization “All for Them” said that there are minors who continue to suffer sexual and labor exploitation in the border municipalities and “it is the police bodies themselves who violate their rights and even take away what little they earn on the streets.” far from providing adequate care: “Right now there is no protection for minors who arrive in this city, because the authorities have made it difficult to accompany them and it is not known why, since there is total secrecy of the National Institute of Migration and the Mexican Commission of Aid to Refugees”, the director of the organization stated.
This trend could be explained by the changes in immigration policy announced by the United States government, since, according to the testimonies taken by the INM, “people feel encouraged […] to arrive, by various means, to northern Mexico.”
For more information in Spanish:
México “rescata” a 201 migrantes ocultos en la caja de un camión (Debate, 3 de marzo de 2021)
Hallados 233 migrantes centroamericanos en un tráiler abandonado al sur de México (El País, 15 de febrero de 2021)
Recibe INM a 25, 051 mexicanos repatriados de Estados Unidos (Noticias de Chiapas, 4 de marzo de 2021)
Migrantes avanzan de nuevo, ahora con prueba Covid-19 negativa (El Heraldo de Chiapas, 13 de febrero de 2021)
INM “caza” a migrantes en las vías del tren de la región (El Heraldo de Chiapas, 17 de febrero de 2021)
Menores migrantes victimas de explotación sexual y laboral (El Heraldo de Chiapas, 5 de marzo de 2021)
For more information from SIPAZ:
sipazen.wordpress.com 