Tapachula, Chiapas; November 29, 2021.- All the sports activities in the modern facilities of the local Olympic Stadium were suspended indefinitely; instead of it, they were enabled for immigration offices and the Mexican Commission for Aid to Refugees (Comar). Also, it will be a gigantic hotel for the undocumented people.
The Stadium is located in the south of the city and has a capacity for about 22 thousand people seated. Since many years ago, it has been used for Mexican soccer tournaments in its first, second and third division; and national or international shows. For the more, as a center to distribute social programs for 12 thousand single mothers and the same number of beneficiaries. These have been its use in the past six years, but all that is over.
Nowadays, the migration crisis which Tapachula has been experienced in the last three years and the delay in attending to migrants needs, forced the authorities to install these offices in order to attend around 2,000 foreigners every day, but it has not been enough. This is why the stadium had to be used as a hotel.
In an interview for EL ORBE, Alfredo Márquez who is a Venezuelan migrant, said they have stayed in the Stadium because there is not a place where to go and because passenger buses are arriving every day to take them to other states of the Republic. In addition, mexican government has promised them that they will be able to continue their immigration procedures and to get a support, even when they entered the country illegally.
He pointed out that they decided to trael in order so a week would be up to Haitians, which is the largest group in the city with about 40,000 of the 100,000 migrants; then the Latinos will follow and so on.
In spite of, he said they do not have any kind of support in the stadium; he meant that it is just a place for sleeping. Also, there are Cubans, Hondurans, Salvadorans, Venezuelans, Africans, Nicaraguans, and others.
According to their version, the only thing they want is to obtain a document with which lets them leave Chiapas, travel the entire national territory, reach the border with the United States and request asylum in that nation.
However, he recognized that the current proposal of the federal government which is to take them to 10 states in Mexico and give them visas, it is also a good option for many «because of the pressure that is right now in Tapachula, could explode at any moment.»
When taking into a count of what have happened in these three years on the immigration issue in Mexico, he considered that the «situation is critical and the government can not do anything anymore.»
The fact that thousands of foreigners are leaving Tapachula, some after more than two years, does not mean that this will stop. In the other hand, it is a great attraction for many more to arrive, he said.
“This is not going to stop; it is impossible to stop. This is like the thief, they kill one and then, there are hundred of them.» He said they are just asking for free movement.
He also pointed out that they only have the commitment of the Mexican federal authorities: they will take migrants to ten entities and that they will fix their documents, but nobody knows where they are being moved or even if they are being deported. EL ORBE
