The queue in Tijuana is Not growing: only refugees from Central America and the Caribbean but also from Africa want to continue to the North. The new escape routes, African migrants are extremely expensive.
A group of African refugees waiting for an appointment with the US immigration authorities in Tijuana
Since January, Samuel from Cameroon, is on the run from the henchmen of the since 1982 ruling dictator Paul Biya. The journey led him from the torture cellars Biyas half way around the world – all the way to the Northern Mexican border city of Tijuana. “It was an Odyssey,” says the learned accountant by phone of the DW.
The Odyssey was more about Nigeria to Turkey and from there to Ecuador by Bus, by horse, by boat and on foot through the Darien jungle between Colombia and Panama. On-the-go lurking highwaymen, on several occasions, the 42 was robbed-Year-old, and everywhere, to Costa Rica, conceding corrupt officials to bribe.
Protest is undesirable
6.500 US dollars don’t want to call Samuel, the reasons, his last name out of safety, the trip overall cost. “When I am 31. Of may in Tijuana, landed, I thought that the worst is over and the Rest will be a breeze,” says Samuel, in a phone interview with DW. “Instead, I am now stuck in the jungle of bureaucracy,” he sighs in English, in a broken voice. His savings are exhausted, and at home waiting for the uniforms of his three children money for school – and writing-books.
Samuel, the English-speaking minority of Cameroon belongs to. He is a trained accountant, worked at a Bank and made a training in South Korea. From there, he brought a number of development ideas in his home village in the South of the country. He participated in the protests of the English-speaking minority against Biya, who started in 2016, and gave thanks to his international contacts, internal refugees, food, clothes and medicines.
Terminus Tijuana? Refugees from Africa are protesting against the negligence of the Mexican authorities
On 5. January, he was arrested by the military. Just because one of the officers turned out to be a former classmate and his family 1000 US-Dollar ransom paid, he was free. Samuel fled to Nigeria, but felt not safe because the country’s cooperating partners with Biya. “Critical country, people vanish,” he says.
On transit in Colombia
About the tractor, he bought a flight ticket via Turkey, Panama and Colombia to Ecuador – one of the few countries that require no visa of Kamerunern. He was instructed to buy at a certain bus company a Ticket to Colombia. Not a coincidence: In the Bus, many Cameroonians were sitting already.
On his Odyssey through Latin America, he also met refugees from other African countries as well as migrants from Cuba and Haiti. So it was in the small, in a 200-man strong entourage across the continent – a Station resulted in the next, the migrants moved your hands often, and always money was due.
“The officials even accompanied us up to the next Western-Union-switch, where we picked up the money that had sent us the Relatives,” says Samuel. He who has no money is held – in a case of emergency for a week. “Most of all, the Nicaraguans requested. There, the police had to pay 150 US dollars for the trip,” says Samuel. “And we did not get even a pass.”
Also from Cuba, many refugees are stuck on the Route, in Latin America, here in Costa Rica
In Panama and Colombia, Samuel was robbed first by Criminals, then by police officers. The hostile Darien jungle, he wandered in five days, “always on the trail of broken pieces of clothing, the immigrants had hung before us as a sign in the trees”.
Waiting for the pass
Around 2000 refugees from Cameroon, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana and Somalia, wait, according to the human rights activist Soraya Vasquez of the Mexican border to the hearing for political asylum before the U.S. immigration authority. The waiting list is in the thousands. It is managed by Central American migrants, and at night in the Mexican border station to be stored.
Accusations of deception to make the round. “The Africans are not particularly disadvantaged, because they speak the language and the customs do not know,” says Vásquez of the organization “Families belong together”.
Samuel pilgrim items every day to the border -and will always be put off again. His transit visa, which have issued to him by the Mexican authorities, is long expired. Without papers but he gets no work to bridge the months maybe too long a wait. The few hostel places in Tijuana are occupied, especially of unaccompanied women and families with children. The queues in front of the Free-food expenditure are for a long time.
Waiting behind the fence to the police? Migrants storming the border between Mexico and the United States
“I pray for a miracle”
Three weeks ago Samuel demonstrated with other African refugees in Tijuana. The authorities promised to answer on the matter. “Since then, nothing has happened,” he complains. The USA is still the dream, but in the meantime, he would even go to Canada – but even there, open, in spite of official protestations, as yet, no doors for the asylum seekers.
Mexico or Guatemala to record according to the plans of U.S. President Donald Trump, most of the migrants – are not an Option for Samuel. The language he could learn, but the culture is so different. There would be no or only poorly paid work. Drugs and Prostitution flourished – this was not safe for his children, he wants to like to catch up on. “I don’t know how it goes. I pray for a miracle.”
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The long way NorthJourney through three countries
Further, hitchhiking or on foot: More than two weeks have passed since a group of migrants from the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula left to the North. Their goal: the U.S.-Mexican border in Tijuana. At the end of October, up to 5,000 people have crossed Honduras and Guatemala and have arrived in Juchitán, in southeastern Mexico.
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The long way NorthDeath on the border
At the port of entry to Mexico, an important milestone for the migrants, it came out in the past few days, several violent clashes with security forces. A 26-year-old man from Guatemala was killed. According to the Mexican government, more than 1700 people have applied for the “refugee caravan” in Mexico for asylum. The greater part moves further in the direction of the United States.
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The long way NorthSecond group on the road
While the caravan is smaller, because a lot of people have embarked on the way home or in Mexico and want to stay, tried a second, from up to 1,500 migrants existing group, the first to join. Here, the refugees form a human chain to cross the Rio Suchiate, the natural border between Guatemala and Mexico.
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The long way NorthFleeing from poverty and violence
For some, escape is the only way out of a life of fear and hopelessness. Glenda Escobar from Honduras has joined with her two sons of the caravan. With 18 she was kidnapped by a member of a gang that controlled today, large parts of their home country, and raped. The 33-year-old unemployed hopes for a better life in the United States.
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The long way NorthDangerous Country
The trip through Mexico is fraught with numerous dangers. Every two minutes, is kidnapped in the country, someone – for gangs is a common means to extort money or intimidate the population. A further threat of violent police officers. But it is also helped: Domestic supply the refugees with food, in special accommodation you can rest and feel safe.
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The long way NorthSleep under the open sky
Despite the aid of the way to the North of deprivation is rich. To back to also walk long distances, many refugees only what is Necessary for alone in Mexico, you will need to bring several Thousand kilometers behind. Sometimes the migrants, including many children, have to live, for a long time without food and Drink. If no accommodation is available in the vicinity, sleeping on the street.
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The long way North“Our military is waiting for you”
US President, Donald Trump has discovered the migrants, meanwhile, as a campaign issue. Shortly before the midterm elections, he wrote about the caravan: “This is an Invasion of our country and our military is waiting for you!” Trump has announced plans to send more than 5,000 more soldiers to the southern border of Mexico. Special units of the US border guards are there already in use.
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The long way NorthThe American Dream – only a dream?
How many Central American migrants to reach the US border (see picture), is so uncertain as the future that awaits you there. Trump uses as a deterrent to tent cities where the refugees for the duration of their asylum procedure in detention. Meanwhile, the US President has spoken out in favour of the right to citizenship to be abolished in the case of birth on US soil.