REFUGEES AND MIGRANTS REACH MEXICO CITY

Situation

Jesús Martínez “Palillo” stadium: MEXICO CITY – As 68-year-old Antonio* and his young nephew walked home from work in Honduras, members of a street gang cornered them and demanded an extortion tax. Unable to pay, they shot and killed Antonio’s nephew in front of him. Gathering up a few belongings, Antonio joined refugees and migrants making their way on foot and hitch-hiking north through Mexico in search of safety. The trek is not easy for an elderly man like Antonio. He had to sleep outdoors, in low temperatures, and he fell ill along the way. “This walk is not a red carpet, but a carpet full of thorns,” he says, covering his head with a thick scarf. “I am old and sick. I have blisters.” He is among more than 4,700 refugees and migrants in a so-called “human caravan” who have reached Mexico City after 26 days on the road. They have been provided with a place to bed down rest at Jesús Martínez “Palillo” stadium, in the east of the Mexican capital. Three massive white plastic tents have been set up to accommodate the exhausted men, women and children who have made the gruelling trek. The stadium grass is now covered in blankets and backpacks. Drying clothes hang from fences and the grandstand has turned into bunkbeds. Driven by desperation – violence, persecution, death threats, sexual abuse, lack of food and jobs – some 500 people left San Pedro Sula, Honduras, on foot on 12 October. As the procession headed north, crossing Guatemala then entering southern Mexico, thousands of Hondurans, Guatemalans and Salvadorans joined the caravan, which at one point reached more than 7,000 people.

Provenance

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• UNHCR