Migrants caravan reaches Mexico City after 1600 km on foot

Thousands of mostly Honduran migrants travelling through Mexico remained in the capital on Wednesday after a 1,600 km journey, with some saying they will not move until the police, human rights groups accompany them up north.

A migrant boy, part of a caravan of thousands traveling from Central America en route to the United States, walks through a makeshift camp in Mexico City, Mexico, November 7, 2018
Reuters

A migrant boy, part of a caravan of thousands traveling from Central America en route to the United States, walks through a makeshift camp in Mexico City, Mexico, November 7, 2018

Migrants caravan rests in Mexico City, says will not leave until police, human rights groups accompany them north.

Officials estimated 4,500 migrants were camped in a Mexico City sports stadium, dirty and exhausted after a journey through the violence-plagued state of Veracruz this week.

"A lot of us are waiting for everyone to come to an agreement in order to be able to continue because we can't leave, just like that, if we are not accompanied by police, human rights groups." said Honduran migrant, Juan Carlos.

TRT World's Ediz Tiyansan reports from Mexico City.

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Migrants defy resistance

Their arrival in the Mexican capital was a measure of the migrants' tenacity despite attempts by four governments - Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico and the United States - to break them up.

Mexico City's human rights ombudsman said some 4,500 migrants had arrived at the stadium by Tuesday morning, although around 6,500 have left the caravan and returned home to Honduras, according to Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez.

Since it set off from one of the world's most violent cities, San Pedro Sula, Honduras, on October 13, the caravan has met intermittent police resistance at the Honduran border with Guatemala, on a bridge connecting Guatemala to Mexico, and at the crossing point between the southern Mexican states of Chiapas and Oaxaca.

Some former members of the caravan said they were deported back to Honduras after it fragmented into smaller groups in southern Mexico.

He said Mexican immigration authorities had stopped him, along with about 150 others, on Saturday morning aboard two truck trailers headed to Mexico City.

Mexico's interior ministry denied the government was deporting caravan members. It said 478 of them had voluntarily agreed to return home.

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