Puerto Aventuras, Q.R. — A group of migrants have been taken in at a centre in Puerto Aventuras as part of a pilot program to depressurize the Chiapaneco municipality of Tapachula due to the constant migration flow of Central Americans looking to reach the United States.
On Friday, 22 migrants of Haitian and Nicaraguan nationalities arrived in Riviera Maya. The group of 15 men, five women and two children were transferred by road, arriving at in Puerto Aventuras after an 18-hour trip.
For the next three months, the group of 22 will remain part of the Comunidad Terapeútica Vive project. Ramiro Tena Garduño, director of la Comunidad Terapéutica says that the centre is in good condition to meet the basic needs of families.
“They will stay here for about three months. They are in good health and willing to go out to get a job,” he said.
We are here to help and serve and that is why they will be given humane and gentle treatment.
In a press release, the municipal of Solidaridad says the migrants will receive support with provisional accommodation in the Puerto Aventuras delegation, adding that as part of the federal migrant support program, social assistance will be provided on a provisional basis as long as their legal stay in the country is resolved.
The municipal council also noted that Solidaridad is the first municipality to receive migrants as part of the federal program, to which others will join in the states of Oaxaca and Puebla.
The group arrived in Puerto Aventuras through the efforts of Father Alejandro Solalinde, who since December, has promoted the granting of humanitarian visas by the Mexican government in an open arms policy for migrants.
Wilson Coor, in charge of Migration Affairs, says that migrants “are free to make decisions about their lives.”
Their transfer to Puerto Aventuras was made based on a joint project of the Hermanos en el Camino shelter founded by Father Solalinde and the Ministry of the Interior as part of measures to relieve social tension and pressure in that adjoining city with Guatemala, which has been a gateway for thousands of Central Americans, Caribbean and Asian migrants.
The initial group bound for Puerto Aventuras consisted of 25 people, however, the legal documents for three of them failed to arrive on time, but they are likely to join this group next week.
Coor says that these migrants are being offer first space due to the events taking place in Tapachula due to the large number of migrants that are there. “This is part of a pilot program,” he added.
At the moment, there are no plans for the arrival of additional migrants to the area, however, there is a newly planned transfer of migrants to Oaxaca.
