Many of migrants who have recently crossed from Honduras into Guatemala to get to the United States belong to vulnerable categories and are in urgent need of assistance, the Red Cross said on Friday, noting that it is working on the site to help settle the humanitarian crisis
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd October, 2020) Many of migrants who have recently crossed from Honduras into Guatemala to get to the United States belong to vulnerable categories and are in urgent need of assistance, the Red Cross said on Friday, noting that it is working on the site to help settle the humanitarian crisis.
According to the Red Cross, over 2,300 people are estimated to have recently crossed the border with Guatemala.
"We are seeing many vulnerable people crossing the border and they desperately need assistance. Among the crowd of migrants we are identifying pregnant women, children of different ages and elderly people. Many of the people we are treating are dehydrated or suffering from various injuries after having walked very long distances in recent days," Maria Elena Ajpacaja of the Guatemalan Red Cross said.
The Red Cross is rendering assistance on both sides of the border. In Guatemala, they provide "pre-hospital care, water, hygiene items, snacks, face masks, and information on COVID-19 prevention." On the Honduran border, three Red Cross humanitarian service points are distributing water and face masks and conducting a campaign on virus prevention.
Over recent days, US-bound caravans of Honduran migrants have set off toward the newly-opened Guatemalan border that was shut by the pandemic. To bypass the requirement to provide negative COVID-19 tests to enter the neighboring country, the impoverished migrants take other routes and break through the borders illegally.
With the migrants crisis reemerging, Guatemala introduced a state of high alert in 15 departments of the country, and President Alejandro Giammattei ordered that all such migrants be detained and expelled.
