Hundreds Leave Migrant Caravan on the Way to US Border – Mexican Authorities

03:37 GMT, 25 October 2018

MEXICO CITY (Sputnik) – The caravan of migrants moving from Central America to the United States through the Mexican territory currently includes around 3,630 people, the Mexican Interior Ministry and Defense Ministry said.

Sputnik

According to the two ministries’ previous estimations, the caravan comprised around 4,500 people, while the United Nations put the number of people forming the caravan at around 7,000.

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"It has been determined that around 3,630 people form the caravan of migrants moving through the Mexican territory [to the United States]," the two ministries said in a joint communique.

Around 1,750 people had asked the Mexican authorities for asylum, the communique read. Additionally, another 116 people have agreed to return to their home countries and have been temporarily placed in the sites for asylum seekers.

US President Donald Trump has accused Mexico of failing to stop the caravan of mostly Honduran migrants, seeking to settle in the United States, from approaching the US border. The president also suggested that there were criminals and "unknown Middle Easterners" in the caravan and pledged to send as many troops as necessary to the US southern border, calling the situation a national emergency.

Renato Sales Heredia, the national security commissioner, on Wednesday, refuted claims that terrorists and criminal gangs’ members were mixed in with migrants in the caravan.