US Embassy in Mexico warns no asylum policy will be modified for migrant caravans

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On Thursday, October 1st, three thousand Honduran migrants entered Guatemala in a caravan with the intention of reaching the United States by crossing through Mexico.

The United States embassy in Mexico warned that arriving by caravan will not change the asylum application policies, so it asked undocumented migrants not to risk their lives trying to cross Mexican territory without documents.

Through its social networks, the diplomatic headquarters also pointed out that migrating without documents brings consequences, since it is against the law, so it asked those who intend to emigrate to stay at home safely.

Despite the pandemic, some 3,000 Honduran migrants entered Guatemala in a caravan on Thursday with the intention of crossing into Mexico and then head to the United States.

If they continue as they plan to, the migrants would enter Chiapas at a yellow epidemiological risk traffic light and an availability of beds greater than 95 percent to deal with Covid-19 cases.

According to official figures, so far in the pandemic, Chiapas has a cumulative 6,543 cases of Covid-19 and 555 deaths, which could skyrocket if migrants manage to cross the southern border to settle in cities like Tapachula.

According to the latest monitoring of the southern border on Covid-19, prepared by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), since Chiapas went from orange to yellow a week ago, Tapachula has seen an increase in mobility of migrant people; Likewise, Tenosique, another border town, has seen a significant increase in the flow of extra-regional population, in addition to an increase in violent events.

The report highlights that until August 407 positive cases were registered in migrants nationwide, mainly from Honduras, the country of origin of the caravan that is about to enter Mexico, the United States, Venezuela, Cuba, El Salvador and Guatemala.

Photo: @INAMI_mx

In addition, 23 deaths of people from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, Canada, Chile, Cuba, Spain and the United States were reported. The states with the highest number of positive cases in the migrant population are Mexico City, Nuevo León and Chihuahua.

The report also highlights that despite Mexico complying with the general standards regarding the presence of health authorities and detection of Covid-19 at the southern border crossings, some of the international bridges, such as the Talisman, lack stations. for handwashing and infrastructure for crowd control and inspector safety.

Source: OEM

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