'Exodus from poverty': Migrant caravan slogs on through southern Mexico

Thousands of refugees and asylum seekers have moved slowly north across the southern Mexican state of Chiapas in a caravan hoping to reach the US border, one day before top US officials planned to visit Mexico to discuss migration.

On Tuesday, refugees and asylum seekers, many carrying small children, walked along the highway near the southern Mexican city of Villa Comaltitlan.

Some held a banner reading "Exodus from poverty."

Rosa, from El Salvador, said she hoped the officials would ease the suffering of refugees.

"We are looking for something better for our children and our families," she said as she walked. "I hope this touches their hearts," she added.

Refugees and asylum seekers transit through Mexico to the US to escape violence, economic distress and negative impacts of climate crisis, according to the United Nations.

The number crossing the perilous Darien Gap straddling Colombia and Central America has topped half a million this year, double last year's record.

However, Mexico says it detected 680,000 refugees moving through the country in the first 11 months of 2023.

In May, Mexico agreed to take in refugees from countries such as Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba who the US had turned away for not following rules that provided new legal pathways to asylum and other forms of migration.

But that deal, aimed at curbing a post-pandemic jump in migration, appears to be insufficient as numbers rise once again, disrupting bilateral trade and stoking anti-migrant sentiment.

Blinken-Lopez Obrador meeting

Some on the caravan, like Norbey Diaz Rios, a migrant from Colombia, said turning back was not an option. Diaz Rios, 46, said he left his home because of threats from criminal gangs, and plans to ask for asylum in the US.

"You know that you are walking for a purpose, with a goal in mind, but it is unsure if you are going to make it, or what obstacles you will find along the way," said Diaz Rios. "I can't return to Colombia."

"They should give me a chance to remain in a country where I can get papers and work and provide for my family," he added.

On Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Homeland Security chief Alejandro Mayorkas will visit Mexico to meet with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

The officials will discuss "unprecedented irregular migration in the Western Hemisphere and identify ways Mexico and the United States will address border security challenges," according to a statement from State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller.

The meeting comes a week after US President Joe Biden spoke with Lopez Obrador by telephone, during which the two leaders said that more enforcement was needed at their shared frontier.

Migrant rights activist Luis Garcia Villagran criticised the meeting, saying the officials' main concerns are domestic electoral issues, and that more enforcement efforts aimed at stopping refugees from reaching the US border would only hurt the poorest of the poor.

"They want women and children to be bargaining chips," he said, speaking alongside the caravan on Tuesday. "We are not bargaining chips for any politicians."

The meeting “will be between fools and fools, who want to use women and children as trading pieces,” said Villagran. "What Mexico wants is the money, the money to detain and deport migrants."