A crowd of migrants gathers in Tapachula after entering Mexico. Until recently, many arrived in this border city with Guatemala after crossing the nearby Suchiate River in an inflatable tube, but lately we do not see them arriving there. Migration routes in Mexico – country of origin, transit, destination and return – change all the time without reducing a constant flow of hundreds of thousands of people. in mobility.
The flow, made up of more and more women alone or accompanied by girls and boys of all ages, comes from Central American countries such as Guatemala itself, Honduras or El Salvador, and from the continental south, especially Venezuela, to a lesser extent Colombia and Ecuador. And people also come from Haiti and even from beyond the Atlantic: Senegal, Pakistan, China and a long etcetera.
In Tapachula, many migrants begin to carry out bureaucratic procedures before continuing their journey through the extensive Mexican territory towards the United States; Many of the migrant caravans are formed here, which in recent months have increased in frequency and size, although most are eventually dissolved before even reaching Mexico City through coercion and deception.as they tell us. Migrants walk together to try to reduce their exposure to violent events carried out by the multiple armed actors who operate along a route of some 3,000 kilometers between the southern and northern borders.
Multiple forms of violence
Los Violent events range from torture to sexual violence, robberies, kidnappings, threats, deprivation of water and food, burns or extortion. and have serious consequences on physical and mental health, sometimes irreversibly. Many people were already carrying a heavy backpack: they had fled their own countries due to conflict, violence or exclusion, and then suffered new attacks in points of the Latin American migratory corridor such as the dangerous Darien jungle in Panama.
The recent increase in migrant caravans in southern Mexico has led us to redouble mobile assistance. Between the end of September and the beginning of December we have attended the arrival of twelve groups that travel in caravans, made up of more than 10,000 peoplein the states of Chiapas, Oaxaca and Veracruz, and we have provided more than 1,900 medical consultations.
Among the people treated were patients with acute respiratory diseases, musculoskeletal diseases, skin and gastrointestinal conditions, caused by the consumption of non-potable water, long walks and high temperatures. We also saw cases of chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, asthma and diabetes. Despite the fragility with which migrants conclude their walks, security forces sometimes close their access to adequate rest areas.. This happened, for example, last November in La Venta, where hundreds of people were forced to stop on the shoulders of a peripheral road, thus exposing themselves to accidents.
It is Migrant caravans are just the visible tip of the iceberg in an ocean of desperation. They represent a small fraction of the more than 925,000 people who were reported in an irregular immigration situation between January and August 2024.according to data from the National Migration Institute, an increase of 131% compared to the same period of the previous year, showing that the worsening of the humanitarian crisis of migrants in Mexico throughout 2024 goes far beyond the recent increase in caravans. At Doctors Without Borders it is very difficult for us to access some people on the move, many of whom choose less traveled routes and are increasingly susceptible to falling victim to human trafficking networks. We know that many do not have access to basic services and that, in some cases, they need urgent medical and psychological care.
Bureaucratic puzzle to obtain asylum
Migrants are suffocated and desperate by an extremely complex and prolonged process to request asylum, not exempt from arbitrary and sudden changes, both in Mexico and through the US CBP One system, as well as attrition strategies by the Mexican authorities that include forced returns, generally by buses, from the northern and central thirds to southern locations like Oluta, Villahermosa or Tuxtla.
These strategies not only fail to stop the migration phenomenon, despite their emphasis on containing the flow, but they also leave migrants devoid of protection and exposed to the violence of organized crime and other armed actors. Authorities, both in Mexico and the United States and along the Latin American migration corridor, must provide safe migration routes and reinforce the basic services availableincluding health care and spaces to rest with dignity.
After a disastrous, violent and inhumane 2024 with people on the move, we hope that during the year that will soon begin, the new Governments of Mexico, the United States and those of other countries in the region will respect the right to asylum, human rights and Recognize that there is a huge crisis that will not disappear on its own. Only this recognition will contribute to improving the medical-humanitarian conditions of populations in transit fleeing into the unknown.leaving everything behind, in search of well-being and security.
