Central American migrants in a caravan that has stopped in Mexico City on Thursday demanded buses to take them to the US border, saying it was too cold and dangerous to continue walking and hitchhiking.
Mexico City authorities say that of the 4,841 registered migrants receiving shelter in a sports complex, 1,726 are under the age of 18, including 310 children under five.
“We need buses to continue traveling,” said Milton Benitez, a caravan coordinator.
Benitez said that it would be colder in northern Mexico and it was not safe for the migrants to continue along highways, where drug cartels frequently operate.
The Mexican government has said that most of the migrants have refused offers to stay in Mexico and only a small number have agreed to return to their home countries.
About 85 percent of the migrants are from Honduras, while others are from the Central American countries of Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua.
“California is the longest route, but is the best border, while Texas is the closest, but the worst” border, the Mexican National Lawyers Guild’s Jose Luis Fuentes told migrants.
There have already been reports of migrants on the caravan going missing, though that is often because they hitch rides on trucks that turn off on different routes, leaving them lost.
However, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said its office in Mexico had filed a report with prosecutors in the central state of Puebla about two buses that migrants boarded in the last leg of the trip to Mexico City early this week, and whose whereabouts were not known.
Mexico City is itself more than 900km from the nearest US border crossing at McAllen, Texas, and a previous caravan in the spring opted for a much longer route to Tijuana in the far northwest, across from San Diego.
That caravan steadily dwindled to only about 200 people by the time it reached the border.
Fuentes warned the migrants that if they are separated from their children, they should “say they want a lawyer and not sign any paper.”
Other rights advocates and officials explained the options available to migrants in Mexico, which has offered them refuge, asylum or work visas.
The Mexican government said 2,697 temporary visas had been issued to individuals and families to cover them while they wait for the 45-day application process for a more permanent status.
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