Over 10,000 Haitians Stranded at Border Could Seek Asylum in Mexico teleSUR
go to original December 8, 2016

A placard is seen behind a Haitian migrant talking on a mobile in Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico (Reuters)

At least 10,000 stranded Haitians at the U.S.-Mexico border are expected to apply for refugee status in Mexico after unsuccessfully trying to cross into the United States, some of them for years, immigration authorities said on Thursday.

Charities and NGOs have been assisting more than 6,500 Haitian immigrants — mostly women and children — who have been forced to sleep in makeshift open-air refugee camps in the Mexican border cities of Tijuana and Mexicali.

Officials in Mexico say the immigrants stranded on the Mexican side of the border have no chance of being admitted by the U.S. authorities since President Barack Obama suspended on Sept. 22 the Haitian humanitarian visa program on the grounds that the emergency in the Caribbean country has ended.

However, the visa program already failed to cover thousands of Haitians who fled to Mexico following the devastating 2010 earthquake in the Caribbean country and who have been stranded at the border ever since.

What's more, two months have now passed since Hurricane Matthew devastated southwest Haiti, leaving thousands of people without adequate food, safe drinking water and shelter. The humanitarian situation, coupled with the political and social crisis, may lead more migrants to think of fleeing to the north.

Read the rest at teleSUR

Related: A Migration Crisis in Baja, Says State Governor Francisco Vega (The Fulano Forum)

Related: Haitians Alarmed by Renewed U.S. Deportations as Trump Era Looms (UPI)

Related: Mexican Authorities Find 110 Migrants Trapped in Truck (Metro)

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