Haitian and African migrants clashed in Tapachula

On Wednesday, a clash broke out between migrants from Africa and Haiti who are stranded in the city of Tapachula, Chiapas, and who were trying to take control of the queue they held outside the premises of the National Institute of Migration (INM).

It all started when a woman of African origin was beaten by another migrant of different nationality, leaving her unconscious, which caused a confrontation between foreigners from Africa and Haiti.

The woman who was beaten, vanished and tried to revive her, but minutes later she recovered, took stones and tried several times to break through the security fence of the National Guard (NG) to throw the rocks at the Haitians behind the riot teams.

Migrants lashed out at migration elements using metal fences that serve as protection and to divide the ranks of foreigners who come to carry out formalities.

For more than 5 minutes Africans and Haitians threw stones at each other causing chaos and uncertainty among the people who circulated in the area.

Falua, of African origin, denounced that undocumented immigrants in Haiti are selling the entrance passes to the offices in a thousand pesos, when the documents are free.

“Haitians are working with migration agents,” he said in an interview with Efe.

This is the first confrontation between migrants from Africa and Haiti less than 48 hours after the reopening of migration regularization offices in Tapachula.

The offices were closed in mid-March after a group of migrants violently broke into the premises to demand humanitarian visas to be able to move freely through Mexico to reach the border with the United States, where they intend to seek political asylum.

In the brawl, foreigners destroyed everything in their path, including, several migrants participating in the revolt were injured, as well as some elements of the National Guard.

Days later, on Friday, April 1, hundreds of migrants, mainly Central Americans, left Tapachula in a caravan called the “migrant road” that intended to arrive in Mexico City (CDMX) to demand their immigration documents.

However, they had barely traveled a few kilometers when they were intercepted by elements of the National Guard and the National Institute for Migration, which sparked a violent confrontation that left several people injured and detained.

The caravan, called the “Migrant Way of the Cross” because of its proximity to Holy Week, lasted three days and barely advanced about 16 kilometers to the community of Álvaro Obregón, practically at the exit of Tapachula, where about 400 migrants agreed to finish their limited journey.

The group, made up of people from Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Peru, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Cuba, Syria and other nationalities, succeeded in establishing a dialogue with the immigration authorities.

Some agreed to surrender to INM agents in order to no longer walk, to have no problems and to be at peace.

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.

With information from EFE

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