The National Institute of Migration in the state of Durango transferred 253 migrants to its facilities, including 15 Cubans. According to a statementthese people were “kidnapped” and were “rescued” after an operation in which members of the Army and the National Guard participated.
The official version was denied by Melquíades, who lives one street from the warehouse, located in the town of Ejido de Lerdo, where the migrants were. “They brought them in trucks and vans since Saturday night. It’s very strange because several patrols passed that day and nobody said anything,” he told 14ymedio.
Melquíades confirmed that among the Cubans in the group “there were several children” and that the “coyotes” took the migrants out of the place in trucks. “They were not kidnapped because some of them went out to buy things to eat,” and he added: “The day before the soldiers arrived, they took out a group of at least 20 Cubans.”
Migration agents told the migrants that since they did not have documentation to support their regular stay, “they would be repatriated to their country,” Melquiades said. “These people want to go to the United States, they should let them continue on their way. The culprits are the ‘polleros’ and there are no detainees.”
The defender of migrants José Luis Pérez Jiménez denounced arbitrariness on the part of Migration agents in various stations to which foreigners are taken. “It is a violation of their rights because the law allows them to regularize their stay, but in the absence of knowledge, they suffer extortion and threats.” to this journal, Several Cubans have sent complaints for illegal detentions in migratory stays. and complaints have arrived.
María, another of the inhabitants of Lerdo, explained to 14ymedio that the authorities took half of the people who were in the warehouse. “There were between 400 and 500 people. We gave clothes, food, shoes and blankets to many Haitians, but there were also Guatemalans.”
According to the Migration report, in addition to the 15 Cubans, they found 186 from Nicaragua, 23 from Ecuador, 11 from Venezuela, 8 from Guatemala, 2 from Colombia and Peru, as well as one from Haiti and another from the Republic Dominican.
Pérez Jiménez, who has defended several Cubans, said that “migrants turn to ‘coyotes,’ thinking that they will be taken to the border, but many are left to their fate.”
“Migrant smuggling earned approximately 615 million dollars in 2021, a figure obtained with estimates in the Survey on Migration on the Southern Border (EMIF SUR); however, the size of the market must be much larger,” assured Rocío González Higuera, head of the Unit for Immigration Policy, Registration and Identity of Persons.
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