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For many months, the Tapachula city in Mexican Chiapas has seen large flows of migrants from Guatemala. Inside, there are in particular migrants coming from Africa. AFP Photos / Quetzalli Blanco

On the Guatemalan-Mexican border, the town of Tapachula is turning into a " prison town ", according to Pueblo sin fronteras. Several thousand migrants, including many Africans, are being held there. Some of them were expelled violently on Wednesday, August 21, while demonstrating to demand their right to cross Mexico.

The NGO Pueblo sin fronteras denounces a " hunt for migrants " in the city of Tapachula. According to this organization, the approximately 6,000 Mexican National Guard soldiers deployed by the government to stem the flow of migrants engage in " raids ".

Originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Jean-Marie was a victim and testifies: " We were arrested, we went to prison. We are mistreated here. We are beaten up. Simply denigrated ! We have nothing to eat ! Jean-Marie wants to join his family in Mexico City, but allowing him to be delivered by the Mexican Migration Service does not allow him to leave the locality of Tapachula on the border with Guatemala.

Like him, more than 3,700 African migrants entered Mexico between January and June 2019 according to the Mexican authorities. In Tapachula, many of them are still waiting: " There are Cameroonians, Angolans, Congolese, Haitians . We all demand our right to be a migrant .

►Also read: Mexico: 1300 migrants flee overpopulated Tapachula center

They claim the right to continue on their way to the United States or Canada. But since Donald Trump has threatened Mexico to tax all of its products imported into the United States, the Mexican authorities have tightened the conditions of entry and circulation on the territory.

The overcrowded detention center in the same city had already been the scene of a rebellion and the city had already rioted until the National Guard intervened.