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Mexico: Migrants trapped between violence, deterrence strategies and suffocating asylum procedures.

After crossing South America, Central America and even the Atlantic, hundreds of thousands of migrants, most of whom head towards the US, fall into limbo in Mexico getting trapped between the violence of multiple armed actors, strategies of attrition and a complex bureaucratic puzzle to request asylum.
Migrant caravans, formed in southern Mexico, have increased in frequency and size in recent months, although most are eventually dissolved before even reaching Mexico City. The migrants walk together to try to reduce their exposure to violence by the multiple armed actors that operate on a journey of up to 3,000 kilometers between the southern and northern borders.
MSF has redoubled mobile assistance to respond to this crisis. While very visible, the caravans represent a small fraction of the more than 925,000 people who were reported to be in an irregular migratory situation between January and August 2024, according to the authorities. For MSF it is very difficult to reach some people on the move, many of whom choose less-traveled routes being more prone of becoming victims of the trafficking networks. We know that many do not have access to basic services and that in some cases they need urgent medical and psychological care.

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