CIUDAD JUÁREZ | Despite the harsh desert conditions, dozens of migrants have been desperately waiting for the chance to seek asylum for days in a gray area on the US border.
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“We suffer from hunger, thirst, cold at night, heat during the day… everything”, tells the Log in a very small voice Katia, 12 years old.
The fragile Guatemalan and her family had been waiting for 8 days at “gate 40”, an irregular passage in the imposing wall at the border where the Americans sometimes accept migrants, a bit like Roxham Road.
Except that the trip to “Gate 40” is much more difficult.
It is accessed from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, provided you get your feet wet in a dirty Río Grande and cross a fence designed to deter passage.
We then have to wait, we don’t know how long, between the barbed wire and a 9-meter-high wall. And cartels prowl around this technically arid place on American soil.
Photo: AFP
Migrants must find a way to cross rows of barbed wire.
During our visit this Tuesday, a line of more than a hundred asylum seekers stretched out under the blazing sun. The lucky ones rested under the shade of one of the few trees.
As big changes to U.S. border policy approached on Thursday, angst was at its height.
“They are driving them up against the wall, they are doing everything to discourage them,” notes Hector Padilla, professor of social sciences at the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juárez.
- Listen to the interview with Nora T. Lamontagne, journalist for the Journal de Montréal-Journal de Québec on QUB radio:
The last pesos
Katia, her brother and her sister, had come to the nearest convenience store to spend their last Mexican pesos to buy a box of 18 eggs, which their grandmother would cook on the stove.
Photo Nora T. Lamontagne
Katia, in the centre, carries a 10 liter container of water with her sister Fernanda and her brother Michel.
The young migrant did not have a word to complain about her fate, but worried about her 2-year-old little sister.
“We have already run out of milk for her. It broke my heart to hear her crying from hunger. I can bear hunger, but she shouldn’t have to go through that, ”she says indignantly in a tone that is too mature for her age.
Others were stocking up on cans of water, sliced bread and ham in order to hold on until the authorities cracked open the door.
“The fridges have been emptying at breakneck speed since their arrival,” confirms Manuel Delgado, security guard.
Photo Nora T. Lamontagne
Manuel Delgado, security guard, tries to help migrants who come to the convenience store where he works, near door 40.
False hopes
Many of the migrants we met were trying to keep hope in their chances, even though only a tiny minority of them have been able to cross to the other side for a week.
Photo Nora T. Lamontagne
“It’s ironic to be so close and so far away,” said Denis Alcalá of Venezuela as he walked back to gate 40.
“Every day, they tell us that they are going to open, but in the end no,” sighs the Venezuelan José Mijarez, who had the number 4 written on his arm, his number in the improvised queue.
Photo Nora T. Lamontagne
Migrants have organized themselves and set up a priority system in order to hope to cross the border. José Mijarez is number 4, he had been waiting for 8 days.
This Tuesday, a handful of families and children were finally able to pass through Gate 40, before being put on a border services bus. But others, every day, continue to arrive.
– With the collaboration of Itzel Aguilera