The new unprecedented wave of migration on Mexico's southern border has caused a shortage of food in supermarkets and shelters, warn shelter directors and activists in the region who demand government intervention.

“In supermarkets there is already a shortage of eggs, bread, rice, beans, sugar has already gone up twice as much.”. Between 33 and 40 pesos (1.8 dollars and 2.28 dollars) is a kilo, it is worrying for both the Mexican and the migrant,” the director of the Todo Por Nuestros shelter, Lorenza Reyes Núñez, explained in an interview with EFE.

The activist denounced that the Mexican authorities “do nothing” to stop the migratory flow and leave all the work to the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (Comar), which has collapsed due to the arrival of thousands of foreigners daily in recent weeks.

Although Tapachula, on Mexico's border with Guatemala, is used to receiving migrants from all over the world seeking to reach the United States, Reyes Núñez stated that never in “the history of the city has it seen so many migrants as this year.”. “There are too many migrants, there are too many people, we have already gone to the institutions and they have told us the same thing, that there are not certain food items in the supermarkets,” he expressed.

“Unprecedented” migration

The situation on the southern border reflects the “unprecedented increase in migrants in Central America and Mexico,” as the International Organization for Migration (IOM) warned this week.

Tapachula has been the scene this month of stampedes of thousands of migrants seeking an asylum appointment in Comar, demonstrations at the offices of the National Migration Institute (IMN) and undocumented immigrants sleeping on the streets.

Dani Rorube, a migrant from Cuba, said that they are dissatisfied with the lack of issuance of transit documents, so they will set up a caravan to leave Tapachula. “We have gone to Immigration (INM), from Immigration they send us to Comar and they have us in a row, as the Cubans say, what everyone wants is to go on foot, in a caravan or with a 'coyote' (trafficker), but it is a lot of money,” he said.

This migrant was a chef in his country and decided to leave everything to go to the United States and resume his activity upon arrival, but now he is stranded with thousands of his compatriots. “They should give us a permit because we don't want to be in Tapachula, there are approximately 30,000 to 40,000 Cubans here, easy,” he explained.

Humanitarian aid to the limit

The Todo Por Él shelter receives about 6,000 migrants monthly, while the Belén shelter, located at the entrance to the city, has around 500 migrants, exceeding its capacity three times the usual amount.

Gerber Bermúdez, administrator of the Jesús el Buen Pastor shelter, pointed out that in this shelter they are lacking food. “There are accommodation problems due to the large magnitude of the migrant population and you can see in the central area people lying on the edges of the streets,” he described.

This shelter has an average of 1,500 migrants, including about 400 children, in addition to hundreds of people who sleep outside the shelter because there is no longer the capacity to care for them. “The population in Tapachula is large, the truth of things is very worrying. Imagine, with the number of people we have, how many children, how hard it would be to see children waiting for a plate of food and there is none to give them,” he lamented.