BBC
Thousands of predominantly Haitian migrants are still camped at the US border, where officials have struggled to provide them with food and sanitation.
Last weekend, approximately 13,000 would-be migrants gathered under a bridge connecting Del Rio in Texas with Ciudad Acuña in Mexico.
Many of the migrants are fleeing natural disasters, poverty and political turmoil, and making a treacherous journey through Latin America to reach the border.
Who are the migrants?
While citizens of several countries are represented in the migrant camp in Del Rio – including Dominicans, Venezuelans and Cubans – the vast majority are from Haiti.
Of the Haitians, a significant number were those who fled after a devastating earthquake struck the country in 2010, and took up residence in Brazil and other South American countries.
Haiti has also suffered from years of political instability, culminating in the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July. The following month, the country suffered another deadly earthquake.
Katiana Anglade, the Haitian-born development and operations director of the Washington-based Lambi Fund of Haiti, says the combination of natural disasters and political unrest over the years has left many Haitians “with nothing to hold on to”.
“There was a big lack of hope for the people who were living on the ground in Haiti,” she says. “It’s just been one shock after another, and one trauma after another.”
Many of the Haitians at the US-Mexico border experienced a long and difficult journey from South America.
Ralph Thomassaint – a journalist for the Haitian news outlet AyiboPost who visited Del Rio this week to collect testimonies from migrants – says most of the migrants “had a sad story” from the journey.
“Many, many women were raped during the trip, and many people die,” he says. “You have thieves and gangs along the route, and people they have to pay to take them from one point to another.”
