The caravan of migrant migrants from Central America arrived in the village of San Pedro Tapanatepec in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca yesterday (local time). Previously, thousands of migrants were locked in a police block in Las Arenas, 25 kilometers away, an AFP reporter reported. After two hours of waiting on the asphalt road between tropical forest and corn fields, the march continued without incident.
On Friday evening, the refugees had in a vote on the main square of Arriaga in the neighboring state of Chiapas, an offer by the Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto rejected by a majority. The head of state had suggested that migrants could gain access to the health system, send their children to school and accept temporary jobs – provided that they stayed in Chiapas and Oaxaca and applied for asylum there.
Around 4,000 people
The Mexican authorities have so far received almost 1,750 asylum applications. As the Ministry of Interior in Mexico City announced yesterday, it granted eleven people a residence permit. According to the non-governmental organization Pueblos Sin Fronteras, which accompanies the refugee trek, it currently numbers about 4,000 people. There are many little children among them.
Originally, the caravan consisted of around 7,000 people fleeing poverty and violence in their home countries. Most come from Honduras. They made their way there towards the US on 13 October and crossed the Mexican-Guatemalan border on 19 October. Many decided in the meantime not to march on or turn back.
US President Donald Trump has already announced that he does not want to let people into the country – and thus made it a public issue. There were similar migrations of larger groups almost every year – but always below the international threshold of perception.
