The Long Journey of Haitian Refugees: ‘Only God Can Help Us’

Enel Germain, 31, from Haiti, has been living in a temporary migrant camp in Acuña, Mexico, for a week.

He got there with his wife and four-year-old daughter after a long bus ride on foot, which took them from Chile to this Mexican city, via Colombia and Panama.

Enel Germain used all his savings on the long trip, which cost him $5,000, which he made after working for four years in the fields in Chile.

My wife did not find a job in Chile. We had to send money to our families in Haiti, He says.

They left Chile in the hope of living in the United States, but today they find themselves with nothing.

Only God can help us.

Denis Onak says the situation in Haiti is appalling. We can’t go back there and there’s no work, He says. Imagine, we’re killing the president despite all the security around him. Imagine me alone.

He also left Chile for Mexico with his wife and two children. Still, Dennis Onak is joking about his journey, and he says that many people died of hunger and thirst on the road from Colombia to Panama.

He, too, decided not to try his luck in Del Rio, Texas. He now hopes to live in Mexico.

Unitarian Mexican population

At the entrance to the camp, Mexicans come to bring food for the migrants. A kind of human solidarity formed around them in Akunya. Contradiction with receiving patrol boats in Texas who were trying to catch them with a lassowhile they were looking for food.

All week, federal authorities in the United States and Texas emptied the temporary camp that had formed under the International Bridge that spans the Rio Grande River, connecting Mexico to the city of Del Rio, without the knowledge of television cameras.

The US Department of Homeland Security denied our request to photograph immigrants under the bridge. Late at night, buses were seen leaving the bridge to an unknown destination.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, more than 5,000 Haitian files will be processed by immigration to the United States. At least 1,500 people were deported to Haiti.

The Long Journey of Haitian Refugees

Photo: Radio Canada / Azeb Wolde-Giorghis

In the makeshift camp in Akunia, a city council member told the immigrants that they would have to move. The Mexican authorities are trying to send them to the city of Tapachula.

For Enel Germain and his family, it will be a mini relay. He said there is no work there.

Leaving the camp, we passed near the place where Enel and his wife were. There was no one already.

The international bridge reopened at 4 pm on Saturday after it was completely cleaned. Works resumed between Acuña and Del Rio; Solve the Haitian mystery of the US authorities.

The refugees, for their part, continue their journey, clinging to the hope that one day they will be welcomed by a country.

Haitian migrants who have sought refuge in Acuña camp, northern Mexico, sleep in tents.

Photo: Radio Canada / Azeb Wolde-Giorghis