CAMOTAN, Guatemala: At least 9,000 Honduran migrants have entered Guatemala after a first group pushed past border police late on Friday and others soon followed on the first step of a journey north they hope will take them to the United States, officials said on Saturday.
On Sunday, Guatemalan police fired tear gas to try to disperse the caravan of migrants, AFP journalists saw.
Security forces surrounded the group on a highway in the town of Vado Hondo, near the border with Honduras, and then fired tear gas.
Seeking to escape poverty, unemployment, gang and drug violence and the aftermath of two devastating hurricanes, the migrants, most of them travelling on foot, planned to head first to Mexico and then on to the US, a journey of thousands of kilometres.
A first group of men, women and children — many wearing masks due to the COVID-19 pandemic — pushed their way on Friday past police at the Guatemalan border town of El Florido, 220 kilometres east of Guatemala City, an AFP correspondent said. Guatemalan officials said the initial group numbered roughly 6,000; an additional 3,000 crossed into the country on Saturday, they said.
A Guatemalan government statement denounced what it said was a violation of its national sovereignty and called on Honduras to “contain the massive departure of its inhabitants, through permanent preventive actions.”
A police official said the migrants were allowed to cross into Guatemala because there were many families with children. They said officers, who were unarmed, feared tear gas could cause casualties.
Border agents asked the migrants for their papers — and demanded proof of negative coronavirus tests — but appeared to let many through who did not meet those requirements.
As the migrants moved northward in small groups, workers with the International Committee of the Red Cross and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees provided some with assistance.
Most of the migrants, many in sandals, carried backpacks with their few belongings.
Olga Ramirez, 28, trudged along with her husband, four children ages 3 to 8, and her brother. She carried the smallest child in her arms and the middle kids rode in a decrepit stroller that looked like it was about to collapse.
Ramirez said they left Honduras because staying meant running the risk of only eating every other day. She lost her job selling food in a bus station after the facility was privatised.
“They threw us out like we were dogs, like garbage, as if we were worthless to the country,” Ramirez said, drying her tears as she walked along the side of the road. “And I have no profession to support my family,” she said. The migrants are seeking a better life in America under Joe Biden after years of tough anti-immigrant policies under Donald Trump, but US authorities have already warned off the group. — AFP
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