A migrant caravan made up of a number of hundred males, girls and youngsters was stopped by authorities in Guatemala.
Authorities stated the group, who had set off from the Honduran metropolis of San Pedro Sula on Saturday, was trying to make its approach throughout Mexico to the US border, almost 1,200 miles (2,000 kilometers) away.
The migrants, many from Honduras and Nicaragua, had arrived within the Honduran border city of Corinto on Saturday afternoon. They then crossed into Guatemala, the place a whole bunch of safety personnel have been ready for them.
There was a violent confrontation with safety officers, throughout which stones and different objects have been reportedly thrown. Guatemalan police stated {that a} dozen officers had been injured as they tried to show the group again.
According to the Guatemalan Migration Institute, discussions on returning the migrants to their residence nations have begun.
“People are being returned, everything in order, humanely,” the institute’s normal director Carlos Emilio Morales stated.
“We are protecting our borders; we are protecting the health of all Guatemalans,” Morales added.
Migrants wishing to stay in Guatemala are required to have identification, proof of vaccination, together with a damaging COVID-19 take a look at.
A photographer with AFP information company reported seeing individuals with out these required paperwork being turned again to Honduras.
In search of a ‘better life’
A Nicaraguan man referred to as Ovaldo advised AFP that his main concern was “a better life for their family.”
“There is no work,” Pablo Mendez advised Reuters information company. The Honduran father was carrying his 2-year-old daughter in his arms. “That is why people are leaving in this caravan.”
In January 2021, a a lot bigger caravan numbering a number of thousand was additionally intercepted in Guatemala, forcing many to return to Honduras.
Those in Saturday’s group stated they have been making the arduous journey to flee poverty and violence and start new lives. Many had been victims of pure disasters like floods and drought.
Criticism of US migration coverage
In September 2021, the Biden administration confronted a flood of criticism over its dealing with of the hundreds of migrants who had gathered beneath a bridge at Del Rio, on the US-Mexico border.
Images of US border guards on horseback chasing down migrants aggressively to cease from continuing have been broadly condemned by rights teams.
At the time, the White House stated what had occurred was unacceptable and inappropriate.
Later in September 2021, the Biden administration introduced that it will elevate its cap to soak up 125,000 refugees and their households beginning in 2022.
However, in December, the US introduced it will be reinstating a contentious Trump-era border program that forces asylum-seekers to attend in Mexico pending US immigration hearings.
