Tapachula (Mexico), January 23 (EFE).- About 18,000 Haitian migrants are stuck in Tapachula, on Mexico’s southern border, due to new immigration restrictions from the United States and inaction by Mexican authorities, a committee estimates. Monday to protect naturalized citizens and Afro-Mexicans.
Committee President Wilner Metellus assured that there are thousands of Haitians in Tafachula who are not on the streets because they do not have immigration documents, others have health problems and continue to come despite many other difficulties.
“Migrants are people who left their countries because of violence, economic problems, and if there is no solidarity with migrants, only criminals can take advantage, because today there are new ways for criminals against foreigners,” he told the media. .
Metellus began a tour of Tapachula Monday through Wednesday to meet with migrants from Haiti, Africa and other Afro-descendants.
His main request to the Mexican authorities is that they speed up procedures for Haitians, that there be health services and that people can get jobs.
He argued that Haitians need papers to work and survive because they are “suffering so much.”
At the same time, he asked the National Guard and the National Institute of Migration (INM) to stop detaining Haitians, Africans and other migrants because they do not pose a threat.
In addition, he asked Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to release the migrants at INM’s Siglo 21 station, which he called a “concentration camp.”
Lut Mani Chavez, a Haitian migrant who has been trapped in Tafachula for more than two months, said his situation is difficult because there is no money, employment or necessary services for migrants in the region.
This migrant remains outside the Mexican Commission for Refugees, waiting for the process to continue, as do hundreds of people from Central America, South America and other countries.
Humanitarian crisis on Mexico’s southern border continues amid new US restrictions; On January 5, he announced the monthly admission of 30,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, but the immediate deportation of the rest who arrive by land.
The region is experiencing record migration flows with 2.76 million undocumented immigrants apprehended at the US border with Mexico in fiscal year 2022.
Similarly, in 2022, according to Comar data, Mexico received 118,478 petitions from migrants seeking asylum, the second highest after 2021 with 131,448 cases.
Source: El Diario
