Are banilejos the four dominicans who were found in a trailer in Mexico along with 362 other migrants who were traveling in the box of the vehicle in an overcrowded manner last Thursday, June 16.
The information was offered by Jatzel Román, deputy minister of Consular and Immigration Affairs of Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Mirex)by announcing that it is two women and two men.
“All banilejos, again”, commented Roman. That they are people from the Baní municipality, Peravia province, brings to mind the accident last December in the Mexican state of Chiapas.
On that occasion, a trailer with 160 migrants there was an accident inside: 56 died. Among the migrants, 16 were Dominican, of whom 12 diedthree were injured and one is still missing.
Most of the dead, nine, were banilejos. The victims in Baní were Ángel Lugo, Frantony Matos, Juniel Mordán, Juan Alberto Soto, Reyni Guerrero Soto, Luis Emilio Roa Chal, Raymin Brito Figuereo, Luis Alfredo Brito Báez and Edison Yunior Báez.
Instead, from Monte Cristi, Wáscar de Jesús Pérez Vargas and Ramón Benito Almonte Espinal died in the same accident. One of the victims was from Azua, the pylon artisan Rafelín Martínez Castillo.
Román assured that the four Dominicans “are safe” in a shelter and in contact with the consular representation of the Dominican Republic in Mexico. “We thank Mexico for its collaboration,” he said.
New routes
This accident showed that there are Dominicans who use the migratory route through South and Central America with the hope of improving their quality of life and that of their family when they reach the United States as their final destination.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) revealed in a report that the Dominicans were the third largest group contributing to the growing number of nationals of Caribbean countries who emigrated to South America during the last decade.
“Due to the absence of regular routes for most of these migrants from other regions and the Caribbean, these movements tend to take place irregularly,” explained the IOM in the document titled Large movements of highly vulnerable migrants in the Americas from the Caribbean, Latin America and other regions.
The path includes risking moving through the Darien Gap (on the border between Panama and Colombia), one of the most dangerous places for those who make the decision to migrate to North America.
Those who cross the area Darienwarned the IOM in their report, they risk being exposed to the activity of armed groups, migrant smuggling, human trafficking, physical and psychological harassment and abuse, and sexual violence, mainly against women.
Continuation of the trips
The exact number of how many Dominicans have been found by the Mexican immigration authorities is unknown, but information from the National Migration Institute (INM) Mexican account for the presence of Creoles in the work carried out by the institution.
At the end of last April, the INM reported that between the 21st and 24th, 5,688 foreign migrants were located in trailer boxes, cattle trailers, safe houses, bus compartments, or truck cabins.
The 10 countries with the most assisted migrants are Honduras, Cuba, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador and Haiti. But there are also reports that there were people from the Dominican Republic.
While, in April, the Attorney General of the Republic (FGR) of Mexico reported the rescue of 386 migrants from 13 countries, and three were from the Dominican Republic.
In January 2022, the National Migration Institute reported that it rescued 27 foreign migrants hidden in the cabin of three trailers; three originally from Honduras; 16 from Guatemala; two from the Dominican Republic, and six of Cuban nationality.
