At least 3,000 Honduran migrants en route to the United States enter Guatemala
On their way to the United States, these Honduran migrants arrive in Entre Rios, Guatemala, after crossing the border, on October 1, 2020. Johan ORDONEZ / AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
In Central America, a new group of several thousand migrants took the road of exile to the United States despite the Covid-19 epidemic.
They left Honduras and are now crossing Guatemala, which has just reopened its borders.
This Thursday, October 1, more than 3,000 migrants entered Guatemala.
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At least 3,000 Honduran migrants forming a human caravan crossed the border from Guatemala on Thursday, October 1, in the hope of reaching the United States.
They left in the night of September 30 to October 1 San Pedro Sula, second city of Honduras, located 180 kilometers north of Tegucigalpa.
As in previous caravans, migrants cited unemployment, failing education and health services, and gang violence to explain their flight.
Reasons to which are now added the economic and social consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to the Red Cross, which assists migrants, 1,200 people left San Pedro Sula overnight in a first group, followed a few hours later by around 2,000 others.
The majority of them are young men.
Lifting restrictions
“
According to our initial figures, there are approximately
3,000 people in this caravan
,” explains Jorge Lemus, spokesperson for the Guatemalan Red Cross.
Due to the coronavirus epidemic in Guatemala, one must present a negative test for Covid-19 carried out within 72
hours to enter the country.
When we arrived at the border this Thursday morning, the situation was very tense.
People have broken through the police perimeter installed by the Guatemalan authorities.
They entered Guatemala without going through anti-Covid checks.
The majority of people who come from Honduras do not wear masks.
So we distribute as much as possible to protect the migrants and the rest of the population
”.
Since January, the date of the last departure of around 2,000 people, no call to leave launched on social networks had prospered, in particular because of the restrictions and risks linked to the coronavirus health crisis.
In recent years, thousands of Central American nationals moving in large groups have crossed the border into Mexico, with the goal of crossing the US border.
After the large caravans of late 2018 and early 2019, faced with threats of retaliation from US President Donald Trump to prevent these caravans from approaching the border with the United States, Mexico has deployed some 26,000 troops to the southern borders and north of the country.
According to the Honduran government, as of September 27, 31,022 Hondurans had been deported, most from Mexico and the United States and the rest from Guatemala.
(With
AFP
)
► To read also: One year later, what happened to the migrants from Honduras?
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Honduras
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