MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – About 3,000 largely Central American migrants superior slowly on Friday alongside a freeway close to Mexico’s border with Guatemala after some rejected overtures from immigration brokers to cease, preferring as a substitute to take their probabilities on the northern trek.
The caravan made up of largely of girls and kids arrived earlier within the day within the city of Acacoyagua, advancing 24 miles (38 km) from a earlier cease in one other southern Mexican hamlet, simply past the border metropolis of Tapachula, the place the migrants started their journey.
Migrants advocate Irineo Mujica, one of many caravan’s leaders, mentioned migrants largely rejected the supply of so-called humanitarian visas from the brokers in alternate for ending their journey. The migrants additionally would have needed to report back to authorities shelters and consent to be moved to different states, Mujica mentioned.
He added that many had been distrustful of the migration officers as a consequence of what he described as damaged guarantees prior to now, in addition to some arrests and deportations.
The humanitarian visas would have briefly regularized the migrants’ authorized standing in Mexico whereas granting them entry to public providers like healthcare, in addition to the flexibility to work.
A press officer with the nationwide migration institute mentioned he couldn’t present any info on negotiations over the visas.
It stays unclear if the Mexican authorities will search to interrupt up the caravan. Earlier caravans have confronted off with migration brokers and troopers who’ve more and more used robust techniques to stem the tide of fleeing migrants, lots of whom wish to escape violent gangs and grinding joblessness again house. Others are looking for asylum protections.
The Mexican authorities is underneath stress from U.S. authorities to assist scale back the move and has deployed hundreds of police and nationwide guard troopers to take action in latest months.
(Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz in Mexico Metropolis; Extra reporting by Jose Torres and Daniel Becerril in Acacoyagua; Writing by David Alire Garcia; Modifying by Stephen Coates)
