Migrant caravans in Mexico: “Just the tip of the iceberg in an ocean of despair”

By Daniel Bruce and Ricardo Santiago, MSF coordinators in southern Mexico

In Tapachula, a crowd of migrants gather shortly after entering Mexico. Until recently, many used to arrive in this border city with Guatemala after crossing the nearby Suchiate River in an inner tube, but lately we don’t see many of them here. Migration routes in Mexico—a country of origin, transit, destination, and return—change all the time, but the constant flow of hundreds of thousands of people doesn’t diminish.

The flow of migrants—increasingly made up of single women or people accompanied by children— comes from Central American countries such as Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador; from the southern part of the continent, especially Venezuela; and to a lesser extent, from Colombia and Ecuador. People also come from Haiti and even from across the Atlantic: Senegal, Pakistan, China, and many other countries.

In Tapachula, many migrants initiate bureaucratic procedures before continuing their journey through the vast Mexican territory toward the US. This is where many of the migrant caravans that have increased in frequency and size in recent months form, although most eventually dissolve through coercion and deception before even reaching Mexico City, according to testimonies. The migrants walk together to try to reduce their exposure to violence from the multiple armed actors that operate on a journey of up to nearly 2,000 miles between Mexico’s southern and northern borders.

Many forms of violence along the route

The violence migrants face ranges from torture to sexual violence, kidnappings, robbery, threats, deprivation of water and food, burns and extortion. These have serious consequences for the physical and mental health of migrants—sometimes irreversible. Many people are already carrying a heavy backpack after fleeing their own countries due to conflict, violence, and exclusion, and then suffer these new attacks at points along the Latin American migration corridor, such as the dangerous Darién jungle in Panama.

A recent increase in migrant caravans in southern Mexico has led MSF to redouble mobile assistance. Between the end of September and the beginning of December, we have responded to 12 caravans—made up of some 10,000 people—in the states of Chiapas, Oaxaca, and Veracruz, providing more than 1,900 medical consultations. 

Among the people treated, there were patients with acute respiratory diseases, musculoskeletal diseases, and skin and gastrointestinal conditions, which are caused by the conditions they face, including the consumption of unsafe water, long walks, and high temperatures. We also saw cases of chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, asthma, and diabetes. Despite the fragility with which migrants complete their journeys, sometimes security forces close off access to suitable rest areas. This happened in November in La Venta, where hundreds of people were forced to stop on the side of a peripheral road, exposed to potential car accidents.

These migrant caravans are just the visible tip of the iceberg in an ocean of despair. They represent a small fraction of the more than 925,000 people who were reported to be in an irregular migratory situation between January and August 2024, according to data from the National Migration Institute. This is an increase of 131 percent compared to the same period last year, which is a sign that the worsening humanitarian crisis migrants face in Mexico goes far beyond the recent increase in caravans.

For us at MSF, it is very difficult to reach some people on the move, since many of them choose less-traveled routes that place them at greater risk of becoming victims of trafficking networks. We know that many do not have access to basic services and that in some cases they need urgent medical and psychological care.

Aside from the caravans, between August and November our teams carried out nearly 8,900 medical consultations in fixed clinics; improvised points of care or shelters in various locations in southern Mexico; raised awareness of health issues among 17,195 people; and handed out 25,000 aid kits. During these interventions, we provided psychological support to 1,083 patients for anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic or acute stress, and treated 37 survivors of extreme violence and 120 victims of sexual violence. We usually find a higher number of patients in very vulnerable condition outside the caravans, and the time duration we can dedicate to them is higher.

The bureaucratic puzzle to obtain asylum

Migrants feel suffocated and desperate due to an extremely complex and lengthy process to request asylum, which is not exempt from arbitrary and sudden changes, both in Mexico and through the United States’ CBP One system [an app through which migrants are required to secure an appointment with border officials], as well as strategies of attrition by Mexican authorities that include forced returns—generally by bus—from the northern and central areas of the country to southern towns such as Oluta, Villahermosa, or Tuxtla.

These strategies not only fail to stop migration, despite their emphasis on containing the flow, but also leave migrants without protection and exposed to the violence of organized crime and other armed actors. We urge the authorities in Mexico, the US, and along the Latin American migration corridor to provide safe migration routes and to reinforce the basic services available, including health care and spaces where people can rest with dignity.

Upon the end of a disastrous 2024 that was violent and inhumane for people on the move, we hope that in 2025 the new governments of Mexico, the US, and other countries in the region will respect the right to asylum and human rights, and recognize that there is a huge humanitarian crisis that will not disappear. Only this recognition will lead to improving the medical and humanitarian conditions experienced by people who flee into the unknown, leaving everything behind in search of well-being and safety.

*Names have been changed for privacy.