MSF warns that migrant caravans are becoming more and more crowded, as while in September they were counted in the hundreds, now they are counted in the thousands
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned of its concern about the “drastic” increase in migrant caravans arriving in Mexico through the country’s southern border.
According to the organization, they have had to “redouble efforts” in Oaxaca, Chiapas and Veracruz, where groups of hundreds of migrants cross the territory on their way to the US border.
“The violence to which young people, boys, girls, women and men of all ages are exposed as they pass through Mexico, including kidnappings, extortion or sexual violence, forces them to travel in caravans as a protection mechanism,” denounced Ricardo Santiago, MSF project coordinator in southern Mexico. Santiago asserted that “the caravans are becoming more and more multitudinous,” because if in September they numbered in the hundreds, now the count is in the thousands.
MSF teams carried out 855 medical consultations after assisting the arrival of eight migrant caravans made up of some 5,000 people between September 24th and November 8th, six of them in the last three weeks, and which had originally left from the city of Tapachula, on the border with Guatemala.
In addition, in the coming days the authorities expect the formation of new massive caravans and their transit through different points in southern Mexico, assures the NGO.
“Apart from violence, other factors that lead migrants to group together in caravans are the saturation of services for processing asylum applications in Mexico, the high demand for asylum applications through the US CBP One system and the delay in responses,” explained Santiago.
MSF interventions took place in the towns of Santiago Niltepec, La Venta, Sayula de Alemán and Huixtla, and among the people treated were patients with acute respiratory diseases, muscular-skeletal diseases, skin and gastrointestinal conditions due to the consumption of unsafe water, long walks and high temperatures.
In addition, the organization collects testimonies of the psychological impact suffered by the people who form these human caravans as a result of their traumatic experience.
“We witness every day the suffering and invisibility of the migrant population and the impact on their physical and mental health. MSF insists on the need to address the consequences of violence, provide safe migration routes and strengthen the basic services available to people on the move,” stressed the coordinator for projects in Tapachula, Daniel Bruce.
With information from EFE
Original article at López-Dóriga Digital, November 13, 2024.
Translated by Schools for Chiapas.