2024-04-19 00:10:19
Herika Martinez
A migrant suffers a foot injury when he tries to jump over a wire fence to cross the border between Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, and the United States, on April 16, 2024
Herika Martinez
Migrants with chronic illnesses, such as diabetes or HIV, suffer from serious complications on their journey to the United States due to the lack of medicines, which are even confiscated by the authorities themselves, reported the organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF) this Thursday (18 ).
“Patients who suffer from these pathologies have difficulty finding care, monitoring and treatment” in the countries they pass through, the organization said in a report detailing the health conditions that migrants face when passing through Central America and Mexico.
MSF added that 10% of medical consultations carried out by its staff in 2023 were for diseases that require ongoing treatment, such as hypertension, diabetes, asthma, epilepsy and tuberculosis.
Added to these illnesses are health problems caused by migrants’ long crossings, often made on foot, such as respiratory, stomach, skin or musculoskeletal problems.
This is confirmed by Moisés Rojas, a 58-year-old Venezuelan who suffered a leg strain after the long crossing that began in his country.
“I have strain in my right leg, caused by crossing the jungle [do Darién]there are about eight countries […] I wouldn’t have crossed all these countries [senão] because the situation in our country is very critical,” Rojas told AFP this Thursday (18), at the Ciudad Juárez border, amid insistence from Mexican migration agents to transfer him to a shelter to receive medical care.
– Critical condition –
Many patients have no symptoms of their disease, which is why they sometimes abandon treatment or have difficulty continuing it or undergoing clinical follow-up, according to the NGO’s report, presented in Mexico City.
MSF gave as an example people with diabetes who require insulin, but suspend treatment and, “sometimes, arrive at care points decompensated and in a critical condition.”
The organization also reported that, during border crossings, authorities take migrants’ medicines or they lose them.
And he also added that many seek medical care in Mexican border cities, such as Reynosa and Matamoros, where they tend to stay longer because they are close to their final destination.
But others give up, fearing that bureaucratic barriers could delay their goal of reaching the United States.
Among these obstacles are the requirement for documents and a companion, charges for consultation or language barriers, according to the NGO.
The report also points out that other migrants refuse to receive specialized medical care because this would mean going backwards in their trajectory or because they have faced cases of discrimination and rejection.
MSF reiterated its complaint that migrants often suffer sexual violence when crossing to the United States, especially in the inhospitable Darién, on the border between Colombia and Panama.
“The events range from touching to rape, affecting different genders and age groups,” said the NGO, which, in early March, was expelled from Panama after reporting an increase in cases of rape of migrants in the jungle.
According to the organization, in just one week of February, 113 cases were registered, compared to 120 in January.
Thousands of Latin Americans and people from Asian or African countries cross Mexico annually to reach the United States, fleeing violence and poverty.
Along the way, they are victims of homicide, road accidents, kidnappings, robberies and extortion, according to authorities, NGOs and their own reports.
The increase in migratory flow has saturated Mexican reception facilities and hostels in border cities, and is one of the main campaign themes for the presidential elections in the United States in November.
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