Migrants from All Over World Going to Mexico to Join Trek North to US Jan-Albert Hootsen - Fox News Latino
go to original November 26, 2015

A Cuban migrant wearing a t-shirt with a US flag design, uses his cell phone at a shelter in La Cruz, Costa Rica, border with Nicaragua. Cubans interviewed in shelters along Costa Rica's northern border with Nicaragua almost universally pointed to cheap smartphones, data plans and Facebook as the secret of their success to make to the U.S. border mostly unscahthed. (AP/Esteban Felix)

One year after U.S. and Mexican authorities were almost overwhelmed by an unprecedented wave of undocumented Central American attempting to reach the U.S. through Mexico, migration in the region appears to have taken a new and somewhat unusual turn.

In recent weeks, migrants from countries of origin rarely seen around here before – such as Syria, India and Cuba – have been taking the long route to the United States from South and Central America and through Mexico.

These new migrants also appear to be taking a different approach to reaching the U.S. than their Central American counterparts. Whereas the latter mostly travel by themselves, braving accidents, organized crime and corrupt law enforcement officials, the new group more often relies on human traffickers – often paying them large sums of money to guarantee a safe trip.

Last weekend, five Syrian refugees turned themselves in to the Border Patrol in Laredo, Texas, only days after six Syrians were detained in Honduras and Costa Rica with stolen Greek passports. All of them were apparently on their way to the U.S. to seek asylum there.

Meanwhile, hundreds of undocumented Cubans have been crossing the porous border between Mexico and the United States in recent weeks. According to U.S. authorities, the number of Cubans requesting asylum in Laredo alone has jumped 80 percent compared to last year, to almost 30,000. A couple of thousand of Cubans have been stuck on the border between Costa Rica and Nicaragua for nearly a week, as the latter's government refuses to let them enter.

...Migrants from those parts of the world are believed to be attracted by the increasingly sophisticated network of human smugglers operating in South and Central America and Mexico who, for a hefty sum, provide safe passage.

Read the rest at Fox News Latino

Related: Migration in Central America: Crisis Needing Urgent Solution (Prensa Latina)

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!