Honduran migrants trek north toward Guatemalan border
The group set out Wednesday but paused at night before reaching some 75 police officers, dressed in riot gear, who waited along the highway on the outskirts of San Pedro Sula.One officer said the intention was to stop the migrants from violating a pandemic-related curfew, check their documents and make sure they werent traveling with children that were not their own.The migrants stopped about 2 kilometers short of the waiting police and bedded down for the night under and around a highway overpass.
- Country:
- Guatemala
About 200 Honduran migrants resumed walking and catching rides up a highway toward the border with Guatemala on Thursday, a day before a migrant caravan was scheduled to depart the city of San Pedro Sula.
By afternoon some had reached the border crossing at Corinto. The group set out Wednesday but paused at night before reaching some 75 police officers, dressed in riot gear, who waited along the highway on the outskirts of San Pedro Sula.
One officer said the intention was to stop the migrants from violating a pandemic-related curfew, check their documents and make sure they weren't traveling with children that were not their own.
The migrants stopped about 2 kilometers short of the waiting police and bedded down for the night under and around a highway overpass. They resumed their walk after the curfew expired at 5 am.
Meanwhile, more migrants arrived at San Pedro Sula's bus terminal throughout the day Thursday. The station has been the main departure point for caravans in the past and several hundred migrants could be seen around the terminal.
But the migrants faced the additional challenge of governments that agreed earlier this week to enforce immigration laws at their borders.
For weeks, a call for a new caravan departing Jan. 15 has circulated on social networks. In previous caravans, smaller groups have often left earlier than the main caravan. More migrants were expected to converge on San Pedro Sula on Thursday.
Ariel Villega, 35, from the town of Ocotepeque, was walking with his wife and 10-year-old son. He said they planned to get to the Corinto border crossing and wait there for the rest of the caravan to arrive.
''We've got everything, the passport and the COVID test,” Villega said. He said they were leaving because he couldn't find work. “First the pandemic and later the two (hurricanes) left us in crisis.” Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei on Wednesday night decreed a “state of prevention” along the country's border with Honduras. The decree noted the threat of migrants entering without required documentation and without following pandemic-related screening at the border. Guatemala is requiring proof of a negative COVID-19 test. The decree said more than 2,000 national police and soldiers would be stationed at the border.
The Mexican government said Wednesday that it and 10 other countries in North and Central America are worried about the health risks of COVID-19 among migrants without proper documents.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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