MEXICO – The Mexican immigration agency detected 20 migrants in an irregular situation in Mexico who were carrying false documents from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) with which they tried to justify their legal transit through the country to the border with the United States.
As the National Migration Institute (INM) explained in a statement on Tuesday, some of the foreigners, including minors and adults, said that those documents were provided to them by so-called “guides” who offered them “free passage” through Mexican territory. .
The INM indicated that this fact was detected in various areas of the country and that it filed a complaint with the federal prosecutor’s office for an alleged falsification of documents.
The detection of fake stationery comes as the United States has seen a sharp increase in illegal migrant crossings across its southern border since late last year.
Statistics released by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) showed that the number of migrant children and families increased more than 100% between January and February.
The INM explained that the most recent event in which these false documents were detected took place at several roadblocks in the north of the country when foreigners were traveling in passenger buses.
A video circulating on social media shows a large group of migrants waiting to cross to the US side of the border by raft. Congressman Henry Cuellar confirmed it was in the Hidalgo, Texas area.
Twenty of them tried to prove their passage through Mexican territory with alleged transfer requests that bore the acronym of UNHCR.
The documents they showed were dated in Tapachula, on the border with Guatemala, at the beginning of March 2021, and included lists of names of people with the status of “applicant without documents” and with a “regularization procedure before the National Institute. of Migration ”.
The documents had as “destination city” the northern towns of Monterrey and Saltillo or Mexico City.
The INM pointed out that neither the documents nor the procedures specified in them corresponded to UNHCR and that the agency had indicated that they had not been issued by its staff and had already filed a complaint for the misuse of its logo.
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