Hundreds of migrants seek transit permits from Mexican authorities

Tapachula, Mexico, Dec 16 (EFE).- Around 1,000 migrants of various nationalities who have found themselves stranded in this city on Mexico’s southern border attempted to surrender en masse Friday to the INM immigration agency in hope of obtaining documents allowing them to resume their journey to the United States.

The migrants began gathering before dawn at Miguel Hidalgo Park in downtown Tapachula.

“We are waiting for that permit to be able to advance, because they have told us that at another migration station, we can advance to the northern border with the United States,” Venezuelan migrant Eudis Jesus Camacal told EFE.

Camacal, who made the trip from Venezuela with his wife and their two daughters, is anxious to leave Tapachula, where hundreds more migrants arrive every day.

The group in the park includes Central Americans, Haitians, Ecuadorians, Colombians and Peruvians, as well as people from as far away as China.

Another contingent of migrants who have already obtained transit permits have begun to make plans for a northbound caravan that will set out as soon as the group in the park receive documents.

The region is experiencing a record flow of migrants trying to make their way to the US, whose Customs and Border Protection agency intercepted more than 2.76 million undocumented migrants in the 12 months ending Sept. 30, 2022.

And the Mexican government received a record 58,000 asylum applications in the first half of this year.

Between US President Joe Biden’s inauguration in January 2021 and the end of September 2022, more than 3.89 million migrants have been detained at the border, according to figures from the TResearch International consulting firm. EFE jmb/dr