The migrants from central America, have travelled more than 4000 kilometres since their departure from Honduras, the 13 October, in order to flee the violence in their country, have attempted to cross the border to the United States by force. After their failure, and the arrest of several of them, worry reigned, Monday, in the group stuck in Mexico.
” READ ALSO – Caravan of migrants: the tension is rising a notch in Tijuana
• An attempt to force a passage,
Sunday, migrants have attempted to cross the border to the United States to Tijuana, to the north-west of Mexico. Some 500 nationals of central American countries, who were participating in a peaceful demonstration on the outskirts of the border, including women and children, were suddenly directed toward the metal barrier that delineates the border to try to cross illegally to the other side.
The border police in the us has used tear gas to disperse the migrants who tried to cross the border. ADREES LATIF/REUTERS
After you have crossed the first fence rusted, they were eventually repelled by the forces of law and order in the u.s., which have made use of tear gas. The migrants were stopped before they could reach a second barrier, topped with barbed wire, behind which the border guards, the americans were deployed. Flown by helicopter at low altitude, they had to resign themselves to turn back and return to the sports centre where pile up for a week, some 5,000 migrants in the group, designated as a “caravan”.
members of the “caravan” run to the border with the United States, Tijuana, Mexico, Sunday, November 25. SOCIAL MEDIA/REUTERS
• More than one hundred arrests
Side United States, “forty-two people have crossed the border and were arrested,” said on the television channel CNN Rodney Scott, head of the border police, adding that “many” other people “have managed to cross the border without getting arrested.
on the mexican Side, 98 migrants, mostly Hondurans, were arrested and deported to their countries of origin, according to the head of the state migration service (INM), speaking on the channel Televisa, Monday. “We will act and proceed to their expulsion,” warned the minister of the Interior of mexico, Alfonso Navarrete on the chain Milenio. “Far from helping the caravan, they hurt,” he added.
The border was temporarily closed to cars and pedestrians during the day on Sunday.
• Discouragement and anxiety among migrants
The return of these migrants, frightened, torn clothes or covered with earth after their attempt, strongly discouraged the whole group. “We have the heart and the hope destroyed. We had believed that we had arrived in the United States, they would grant the asylum”, commented to AFP Andy Colon, a Woman of 20 years who is travelling with her sister and two children. “Now, we feel a disappointment, but thanks to God we are alive. We have no other choice than to stay in this refuge and to seek a life, a job, a house” in Mexico, she said. “I was told that the ones by me had been identified and that they sought me to kill me”, told AFP a Honduran who had won a certain amount of influence within the group over the weeks. He now wants to return to Honduras.
According to the liaison officer of the international Organization for migration (IOM) in Tijuana, quoted by AFP, “a lot of people” have asked for a voluntary repatriation in the course of the day Monday. In the city, the voltage is further increased. The anger of some groups of traders, and transporters of Tijuana has grown up, on Sunday, with the temporary closure of the border, which has limited trade between the two cities and prejudicial to their activity.
A support plan had been proposed to the migrants when they stopover in the south of Mexico, in October.
More than 4000 migrants who arrived in Tijuana to the us border – Watching on Figaro Live
• Trump’s threat of a permanent shutdown
The president, Donald Trump has threatened in recent weeks to completely close the border if the situation escalated. Approximately 9000 american soldiers have been deployed to prevent any intrusion.
“Mexico is expected to send the migrants, many of whom are hardened criminals, in their country. That is done by plane, bus or in any manner, but they shall NOT enter the United States. If necessary, we will close the border permanently. The Congress, fund the WALL!”, he reiterated on Twitter on Monday.
The president of the United States has also taken a decree to automatically reject asylum applications filed by persons who have entered the United States illegally. The justice, however, has blocked, for the time being, this measure, provoking the ire of the president. Donald Trump is also pressure on the mexican authorities to ensure that these migrants remain in Mexico the time that their applications are being considered in the United States.
in order To enter the United States legally, migrants must apply for asylum, but the administrative services americans are saturated and the wait might be a year for their case to be investigated.
• questions diplomatic with Mexico outstanding
Mexico has asked the United States, in a diplomatic note, to “conduct a thorough investigation of the events at which non-lethal weapons in the united states have been used”.
at the same time, the future mexican government of president-elect, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who takes office on 1 December, said Saturday that it had reached an agreement with the american administration to ensure that asylum seekers remain in Mexico while their application is being examined in the United States, a major breakthrough confirmed by Donald Trump. The conclusion of such an agreement with Mexico, praised by Donald Trump, however, has been disproved by the team of the new mexican president.
If this agreement were to be confirmed, it would sign a victory for the president of the United States that has made the firmness with regard to migrants as one of its priorities. This would also be a turning point in relations between the two neighbouring countries, nastier since the election of Donald Trump by his promise to build a wall antimigrants at the border, and its initial application to pay the colook to the mexican State.
