• FOCUS Migrants from at least 16 African countries that remain stranded in Southern Mexico without legal options to transit towards the US border are demanding the Mexican Government to provide them with documents for safe passage or effectively provide them with international protection.
• GROUP Aided by civil society and religious organizations, migrants have formed the Assembly of African Migrants in Tapachula (22 miles from Guatemala border) which says congregates around 3,000 individuals from countries as far as Burkina Faso and the Central African Republic.
• QUOTE “Nobody in more than two or three months…has been able to achieve (regularization in Mexico). They always tell us to come after 15 business days, ten after those 15 days you have to wait 20 days, and so on”, said Ephraim Billa Sama, one of the migrants in Tapachula.
• BIG PICTURE Hailing from countries marred by conflict, like Democratic Republic of Congo, the flow of migrants from Africa who attempt to reach the US through Mexico has remain steady during the last few years with more than 3,700 detained by Mexican authorities in 2019 per official data.
