In Piedras Negras and Ciudad Acuña, migrant shelters and reception centers are closed, and people do not have access to basic shelter, such as tents.
In Nuevo Laredo, an MSF mobile team has been providing humanitarian assistance to migrants from Haiti and Central America, as well as to internally displaced people fleeing violence in different parts of Mexico. More than 2,000 people remain in shelters and makeshift camps living in unsanitary and unsafe conditions.
"Most are families with small children sleeping on the floor, exposed to the rain and high temperatures,” said Pavel Goytia, head of MSF's medical team in Nuevo Laredo. “The 10 shelters in the city are at maximum capacity and hundreds of people continue to arrive. Many of the shelters are makeshift spaces that lack basic services, mattresses, food, drinking water, protection from the elements, toilets, showers, and proper waste management."
"I have been here for a week in Nuevo Laredo,” said Esaia Jorince, 27, who fled Haiti three years ago after his family was murdered. “The situation here is very bad, I don't have money to buy anything to eat or nowhere to sleep. It has been raining. In the shelter where we are staying there is a lot of water, I am sleeping on the floor—that is complicated for me and for my illnesses. I start crying because I have pains and I feel very bad, sometimes I want to die." Jorince lived in Brazil for several years but had to leave due to lack of employment. He hoping to get asylum in the US.
A similar situation is unfolding in Reynosa. The last remaining inhabitants of the Plaza de la Republica were evicted at the beginning of May. "The number of migrants in the city has increased in recent weeks and there is a severe lack of housing, food, and health services to assist them,” said Anayeli Flores, MSF's humanitarian affairs officer in Reynosa. “There is no space in the shelters and many people are living on the streets enduring very high temperatures.”
