Agents from the National Institute of Migration (INM) located 79 migrants from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Ecuador, including an unaccompanied minor, in rooms of a hotel located in the municipality of Ecatepec, in the State of Mexico.
In a statement, the INM reported that the migrants were found “in overcrowded condition in hotel rooms”.
The INM noted that the finding was the result of “immigration verification tasks” and in coordination with agents of the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena), the National Guard (NG) and security agencies in the entity, which located the migrants since Sunday night.
Of the total number of people, 74 are adults, four were traveling in the family nucleus and one was an unaccompanied minor.
Of the adults, 65 are from Guatemala, seven from El Salvador, one from Honduras and one more from Ecuador.
In addition to an adult woman and man, each with their minor daughter and son, respectively, and an unaccompanied infant, all of Guatemalan nationality, in this case the four persons were placed under the guardianship and protection of the System for the Integral Development of the Family (DIF).
Since October 2018, despite the tightening of surveillance on Mexico's southern border, thousands of migrants from Central America, but also from Cuba, Haiti and various South American, African and Asian countries have entered Mexican territory with the aim of reaching the United States where they seek political asylum.
Human traffickers seek routes for foreigners and sometimes park in the states of Chiapas, Tabasco, Veracruz, Oaxaca, Puebla and the State of Mexico as an intermediate stop on their journey to the United States.
On April 1, hundreds of migrants left in the caravan called “Viacrucis migrante” from the city of Tapachula, Chiapas, in order to reach Mexico City (CDMX) where they intend to demand humanitarian visas that allow them to travel freely through Mexican territory, until they reach the border with the United States, where they intend to seek political asylum.
On the same day, there were violent clashes between migrants and agents of the National Guard as well as the INM who tried to prevent them from advancing through Chiapas territory, leaving some people injured and around 200 detained.
This situation led to the protest of dozens of migrants of Central and South American origin, some of whom sewed their lips with a needle and thread as a way of pressuring the authorities to hand over immigration documents that allow them to transit through Mexico.
Previously, members of the migrant caravan went on hunger strike when they arrived in the community of Álvaro Obregón
The region is experiencing a record flow of migrants to the United States, whose Customs and Border Protection Office (CBP) detected more than 1.7 million undocumented immigrants on the border with Mexico in fiscal year 2021, which ended September 30.
Mexico deported more than 114,000 foreigners in 2021, according to data from the Migration Policy Unit of the country's Ministry of the Interior.
In addition, the Mexican Commission for Refugee Aid (Comar) received a record 131,448 refugee applications in 2021. Of these petitioners, more than 51,000 are Haitians.
With information from EFE
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