Mexico offers migrants jobs, free training for their children
The Mexican government has today announced a new plan with support measures for migrants migrating from Mexico to the USA from Latin America. The migrant caravan is currently moving through the state of Chiapas on the border with Guatemala.
Thousands of people travel from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala to the United States. The so-called caravan today reached the city of Arriaga in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. People have fled the violence of the youth gangs and the bad economic situation in their own country.
Mexico today announced that it will provide temporary IDs and jobs to migrants who apply for asylum in the country. In this way, the country hopes to dissolve the migrant caravan.
The Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto said that migrants can get temporary identity cards, jobs or a training for their children in the context of the ‘Estas and Tu Casa’ plan, if they apply for asylum in the southern states of Chiapas and Oaxaca. “This plan is only for those who adhere to Mexican laws and it is a first step towards a permanent solution for those who get refugee status in Mexico,” Pena Nieto said.
Those who do not qualify for a refugee status are likely to be deported, the Mexican authorities confirm. According to the Mexican government, more than 1,700 participants in the caravan have applied for asylum.
Arrests
The Mexican police have arrested dozens of migrants from Central America today in the south of the country. They had illegally crossed the border river Suchiate between Guatemala and Mexico. According to official sources, they were taken to an immigration office in the city of Tapachula, where they can submit an asylum application.
Trump
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly said that people from the migrant caravan do not stand a chance to enter the US. If necessary, he will call on the army to stop them at the border. Trump also accused Mexico of not taking anything against the migrants coming to the US through the Latin American country.