After last Friday, 18 March, a group of migrants attacked the vicinity of the South Zone Migration Regularization Office in Tapachula, Chiapas, the National Institute of Migration (INM) reported that the facilities were repaired.
However, as announced on Friday, immigration services in these offices will be temporarily suspended until further notice, as conditions are not the most optimal at this time to ensure the safety of their staff and users.
This is after the riots that occurred when a group of approximately 500 migrants violently broke into the building. Local reports said they threw stones and sticks, allegedly demanding immediate attention to obtain visas for humanitarian reasons.
According to the statement issued by INM, “they caused physical injury to immigration personnel and damage to equipment and facilities.” Even from the public road a group of people took a street sign and used it to repeatedly hit the main gate of the Regularization Office.
Similarly, video surveillance cameras, furniture, glass, machines, doors, windows and other equipment were damaged. According to preliminary reports, at least a dozen people were injured after the riots, some with head, nose and mouth injuries.
The riots on Friday, 18, are in addition to those recorded in the same municipality (Tapachula) last Thursday, March 10, when a group of more than a hundred migrants forcibly broke into the offices of the INM between screams, pushes and blows. Most came from Haiti and Africa.
As a result, on Monday, March 21, INM reported that, despite the suspension of services in Tapachula, eight other locations in the state of Chiapas operate normally, which are:
-Union Juarez, located in Buenos Aires and 5 de Mayo, municipality of Union Juárez.
-Tuxtla Gutiérrez, in North East Libramiento, Fraccionamiento Las Palmas.
-San Cristobal de las Casas, located in Diagonal Hermanos Paniagua 28, San Ramón neighborhood.
-Hidalgo City, in Puerto Fronterizo Ciudad Hidalgo, municipality of Suchiate.
-Talisman, on the road, Tepic-Talisman Bridge, in the municipality of Tuxtla Chico.
-Comitan, on the international highway junction with Tzimol.
-Cuauhtémoc City, on the Pan-American Highway, in the municipality of Frontera Comalapa.
-Carmen Xhan, Federal Trinitarian Highway Lagos de Montebello.
In addition, INM urged persons who need to carry out any immigration regularization procedure to go to one of the above-mentioned offices to receive care, provided that it is done in an orderly manner. It should be noted that, according to data from the Ministry of the Interior, about 114,000 migrants were deported from Mexico in 2021.
As for 2022, immigration authorities have intercepted about 73,000 034 foreigners with irregular stay in the country, between January 1 and March 8, the INM detailed, of whom 61,469 are adult women and men, while 11,565 are minors. Similarly, the countries with the most intercepted migrants are: Guatemala (14,095), Honduras (13,867) and El Salvador (4,145). The rest (40,297) come from countries in America, Africa, Asia and Europe.
Finally, the Mexican Commission for Refugee Aid announced that it received 131,448 refugee applications last year.
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