Mexico Working To Provide Job Opportunities To People From Migrant Caravans - Envoy To US

Umer Jamshaid Published November 21, 2018 | 12:48 AM

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st November, 2018) Mexico is working to create a program aimed at providing job opportunities to the people from the migrant caravans who have arrived in the country, Mexican Ambassador to the United States Geronimo Gutierrez told Sputnik on Tuesday.

"Mexico has recognized that there is an important and difficult humanitarian situation right now. And therefore, we are offering a humanitarian response that consists basically offering a possibility for the people to request refugee status in Mexico," Gutierrez said. "There's also been work to offer them and to build up a program where they actually have employment opportunities in Mexico... And that's precisely what we are focused on right now."

Gutierrez emphasized that the current migrant crisis should serve as a wake-up call for affected countries to join efforts to solve the issue.

"I don't think any side, I don't think that the Central American countries, Mexico or the United States can be satisfied with what is going on," Guterrez said.

"[A]gain, this is a wakeup call that we need to work harder together as much as we can to address immigration and to ensure that immigration is legal, is safe and is orderly. And that's precisely what we are doing."

Some 40 buses with migrants have entered the Mexican state of Sonora, and are on their way to the city of Tijuana, where some 2,000 migrants have already gathered in the hope of crossing into the United States and seeking asylum.

The caravan set out from Honduras in the direction of Mexico and the United States on October 13. According to United Nations estimates, the caravan includes more than 7,000 migrants. However, Mexican authorities have said that the caravan marching through its territory included around 3,600 migrants.

On Monday, US immigration officials suspended all northbound traffic on the US-Mexico border crossing in California to install additional security barriers to prepare for numerous migrants arriving at the border.