EFE.- The National Migration Institute (INM) reported this Tuesday that from January to date it has identified 34,427 minors, accompanied and unaccompanied, who were transiting Mexican territory in an irregular condition.
In a statement, the INM pointed out that this population flow tripled compared to the same period in 2020 in which 11,703 minors, accompanied and unaccompanied, were identified.
Of the total, 8,525 were traveling alone and 25,902 in the company of an adult, mainly from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.
Regarding the gender of the population identified so far this year, 19,859 are men and 14,568 women.
According to the interviews conducted with the migrants by federal immigration agents, “they report that human traffickers insist on being accompanied by minors to facilitate their transit through Mexico and even the United States.”
This is due to the change in the Migration Law that establishes “not to house minors, or their companions, in immigration stations or temporary stays.”
He recalled that as of January 11 of this year, the law prevents the INM from housing children and adults who accompany them in these facilities.
They also commented that human traffickers, called “polleros”, “assure them that there is an amnesty in the United States that favors the entry of migrants, even though they are irregular and especially for those who go with children and adolescents”.
This Tuesday, three agencies of the United Nations (UN) demanded that the Mexican authorities “respect the human rights of migrants” after the violent operation over the weekend to dissolve a migrant caravan in the border state of Chiapas. with Guatemala.
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The migratory flow increased in Mexico since October 2018, when caravans with thousands of migrants, mostly Central Americans, began to enter the country to reach the United States, so then-President Donald Trump pressured Mexico to stop them.
When President Joe Biden arrived at the White House last January, he suspended his predecessor’s “Stay in Mexico” program, which forced asylum seekers to await their hearing from Mexican soil, thousands of whom were stranded in border camps.
With this, the migratory flow rebounded so that the United States detained 212,672 undocumented immigrants at its southern border last July, the highest number in 20 years.
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