Activists and migrants from Mexico march to the Mexican Commission for Aid to Refugees COMAR to claim for their rights in Tapachula, Chiapas State, September 15th, 2021 to Haiti. REUTERS Edgard Garrido gherpido DEUTERS
Many Central and Latin American migrants, including a large Haitian contingent, have been stuck in the Mexican border city of Tapachula for months complaining about authorities stopping them from transiting through Guatemala.
We are not criminals, we are international workers, the migrants shouted.
Many of the Haitian migrants had arrived from Brazil and Chile, two nations where they fled to long ago to escape the poverty back home. The Caribbean Island is the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere and its economy has been further hit by earthquakes, the coronavirus pandemic and political unrest.
The influx of migrants has overwhelmed Tapachula and the local migration infrastructure. Thousands of migrants can be seen sleeping in the open on the streets.
We begging to be kicked out of Tapachula, they starve us, said Juliana Exime, a 30-year Haitian woman who has been in that city for two weeks.
We are sleeping on the street, in the rain, we are sick, they want to kill us and even more so with that disease, Exime added, referring to COVID--19.
The Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance COMAR did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
U.S. migration officials and military personnel have been criticised by rights groups for using violence to stem the flows of Mexican immigrants in south of the country.
The United States has pressured Mexico to stop migration flows and the government of Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has often deployed security forces to physically prevent the migrants from heading north.
Washington also asked Central Americans not to undertake the dangerous journey north, with reports of kidnappings, extortion, rapes and even murder of migrants.