10 November 2018 12:01 am
Central American migrants in a caravan that has stopped in Mexico City demanded buses Thursday to take them to the US border, saying it is too cold and dangerous to continue walking and hitchhiking.
About 200 migrants, representing the roughly 5,000 staying in a stadium in the south of Mexico’s capital, marched to the United Nations office in Mexico City to make the demand for transportation.
The office was closed when the migrants arrived, but a dozen were received by UN representatives at a nearby location, said Ilberto Sosa Montes, a 45-year-old Honduran who is one of caravan’s coordinators.
‘We need buses to continue traveling,’ said Milton Benitez, a caravan coordinator. Benitez noted that it would be colder in northern Mexico and it wasn’t safe for the migrants to continue along highways, where drug cartels frequently operate.
‘This is a humanitarian crisis and they are ignoring it,’ Benitez said as the group arrived at the UN office.
The plan was that when the migrant delegation returned to the stadium, roughly a three-hour walk from the UN office, the migrants would gather in an assembly to decide when they would leave Mexico City and what route they would take to the US border. But the meeting with UN officials was continuing into the evening Thursday, representatives of the UN and the caravan confirmed.
Mexico City authorities say that of the 4,841 registered migrants receiving shelter in a sports complex, 1,726 are under the age of 18, including 310 children under five.
Daily Mail,
9 November 2018