Deportations become nightmare for migrants in Guatemala

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Raul, 27, was deported on Wednesday (18) to Guatemala along with his young daughter after unsuccessfully seeking the ‘American dream’. But returning home has become a nightmare for him and thousands of Central American migrants who are returned to a border point in the country’s north, in the middle of nowhere.

Several weeks ago, Mexico began the deportation of Guatemalan, Honduran, and Salvadoran migrants at the El Ceibo border, a place of difficult access located 600 kilometers north of Guatemala City, where the returnees do not have much assistance, unlike other border points.

Read also: Check out our coverage on Guatemala

Raul and his daughter, along with more than 500 other migrants, were deported on Thursday in six buses, most of them unaware that they were in the municipality of La Libertad, in the department of Peten, a region of lush jungle.

Raul’s bitterness about his situation was similar to that of Vicenta, a 21-year-old woman who failed to reach the United States and was deported by Mexican authorities.

Some entities are already at the border point and have begun to assist with phone calls to the migrants. Vicenta was one of the beneficiaries and decided to call a relative in Los Angeles to help her with money to return home. The woman cried because she did not know where she was and did not have any money.

This is the same case of Mynor, a migrant from the department of Chiquimula, near the border with El Salvador, on the other side of Guatemala. Mynor traveled to the United States with two of his children and now has to find a way to reach his home, some 700 kilometers away.

WITH CHILDREN IN THEIR ARMS

According to Efe agency, between Thursday and Friday, more than a thousand migrants were deported, many of them with children in their arms, in addition to a large number of minors.

Upon entering through the Guatemalan border, which borders the Mexican state of Tabasco, migrants of different nationalities are not registered or assisted, so the exact number of returnees in El Ceibo, where a small shelter receives some of the travelers, is unknown.

“(At the shelter) we were all crowded together, many coughing and sick,” lamented Mynor.

Every year more than 300,000 Guatemalans try to cross Mexico to reach the United States illegally, according to estimates by various local and international entities.

AWAITING SOLUTIONS

The Guatemalan Migration Institute has indicated that the deportation to El Ceibo is part of the agreements agreed by the Central American country.

However, the entity assured on Wednesday that it is analyzing measures to help the deported migrants in El Ceibo and that a meeting of several local and international authorities was held to address the situation.

According to the same source, it is “expected that in the next few days,” there will be a protocol for the assistance given to deported migrants at the El Ceibo border point.

In the meantime, migrants like Raul see no escape from the labyrinth where they find themselves: they flee their countries because of poverty. If they are caught in Mexico or the United States, deportation leaves them in the middle of nowhere.

“I’m tired,” Raul told Efe, recalling his failed attempt to reach the US cut short when he was detained with his daughter in Mexico. “We were a group of 125 people from different countries. The ‘coyotes’ moved us between warehouses to get us closer to the United States,” he recalls.

Now, the migrant, whose journey through Mexico lasted almost three weeks, has to find a way to return to his home in Guatemala. “I’m not going to try again (to travel to the US). It is too dangerous for my daughter,” he warned.