There are currently more than 120,000 migrants stranded in Tapachula, 30,000 of whom are Haitians, according to local authorities.
The number of people arriving from Haiti to Mexico with the intention of arriving in the US has increased in the last month. On July 14 alone, more than 2,000 applied for refugee status, he said Andrés Ramírez Silva, Holder of the Mexican Commission of Attention to Refugees (Comar).
So large is the Haitian community, that the stretch of the Tenth Street North of downtown Tapachula, Between Primera and Tercera Ponent streets, is full of informal trade due to these migrants.
Pascual Necochea Valdez, President of Coparmex Costa de Chiapas, said the infrastructure of the municipality is not prepared to provide the necessary protection to migrants.
In an interview with MIL·LENNI he acknowledged that the health and economic conditions are also insufficient, so that these migrants come to Mexico to suffer hunger and thirst.
He mentioned that the body, as an organized civil society, is looking for alternatives to resolve this situation and called on the authorities to take action alongside the federal, state and municipal governments so that the situation of migrants is soon resolved.
The employer representative assured that they are willing to provide migrants with a job so that this brings benefits to the total population of Tapachula, but for now the employers are bound hand in hand.
“We know that no one emigrates for their own taste, the situation in their country of origin is truly deplorable,” he lamented.
Meanwhile, migrants are seeking support from the authorities. In the long line they form outside the offices of the Comar a Tapachula to apply for free transit through the country, anxiety is perceived and despair.
Whole families annoyed by the heat and the crowd, single mothers breastfeeding their babies while waiting their turn, men and women who come only with the “blessing of God.” They all share the urgency of having their request accepted.
Every day before 7 o’clock, migrants who crossed the border Mexico with Guatemala they begin to arrive to spend the morning formed in a queue of nearly half a mile surrounding the apple. Hopefully they are cared for the same day.
Although anxiety emerges from different situations, the question they ask is the same: what will they live on while being granted refuge? Returning to your country is no choice, without a president and devastated by a natural disaster.
Haitians say they settled in Tapachula for the need to generate revenue.