Miskito migrants cling to their culture while waiting in Mexico to go to the US.

Hundreds of migrants of the Miskito ethnic group, from the indigenous region of Honduras, live in various shelters in the border city of Tijuana, north of Mexicoand despite being so far from their country they maintain their uses and customs and protect their mother tongue while they wait to cross into USA.

These migrants stay together and protect each other, and are considered the silent displaced of the Central American migration.

Their lands in Honduras have been controlled by drug trafficking and organized crime, which has forced them to abandon their assets under threats of death and constant violence.

Poverty, violence and organized crime

Cristóbal, one of the many Miskito indigenous people who are in one of the Tijuana shelters, told EFE that in his community they suffer from poverty and abandonment by the authorities, which has led them to organize and leave in groups seeking to reach the United States. Joined.

He shared that they seek to camouflage themselves among other migrants who monopolize the spotlight, especially to protect their integrity, which also allows them to continue with the traditions of their ancestors, such as relying on natural medicine, and maintaining their mother tongue. “misquito” as a form of communication, although they also speak Spanish.

Cristóbal pointed out that his community is rich in natural products, but it is also located in a swampy area that is difficult to access, “That is why the government has abandoned us”which has caused organized crime to invade their lands.

“Drug trafficking has taken over our territories, because we live in a very open area with few people, which gives them many facilities to work on issues of organized crime, which is generating a lot of violence in our region”said.

They seek humanitarian asylum

Jenny, a single mother and one of the indigenous migrants who decided to leave with her son, told EFE that the poverty in Honduras led her to think about other possibilities, but it was drug trafficking that definitively prompted her to leave her town. and now, like the entire group, he seeks to have humanitarian asylum in the US.

“They took all that from us and it hurts us a lot and we are here for work and we want them to give us asylum, to help us to save our lives”said.

They are destroying the community

Another of the migrants with the last name López, whose lands were also taken away by drug trafficking, said that feeling unprotected by his government, he better left his home, and now he has been in Tijuana for more than nine months.

He shared that the people from his community who have stayed there have had to flee to other communities, due to the danger they are running. “They are destroying our ethnic group, our community, everything that our ancestors built one day”lament.

He pointed out that in his place of origin they had no one to help them “That’s why it was better before they killed us, we left our country and here we feel safer, they have given us care and we also take care of each other”he stressed.

Josselin, a single mother also from this community, said that in addition to the difficult road to Mexico, they must face discrimination.

“One suffers a lot because sometimes they denigrate one for not being from here, there are people who are deported, thank God not us, but it is very complicated; We are already here and now we hope that the appointment will come out to be able to obtain asylum ”he trusted.

Mexico is experiencing a record migratory flow, with 2.76 million undocumented immigrants detained at the border with the United States in fiscal year 2022 and, according to data provided by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the migratory flow increased by 8% in Mexican territory.

Source: EFE