Mexico offers temporary work permits to migrant caravan

Estimated 4,000 Central American migrants continue to travel slowly towards the US border

Mexico has offered temporary work permits to Central American migrants who have joined a caravan heading towards the US.

President Enrique Pena Nieto said the “This is Your Home” plan would allow refugees to obtain identity cards, shelter, medical care and schooling for their children.

He described the scheme – which is only open to those who apply for refugee status in the southern Mexican states of Chiapas and Oaxaca – as “a first step towards a permanent solution for those who obtain refugee status in Mexico.”

The offer was immediately rejected by a large group of migrants during a show of hands at the town of Arriaga, around 1,000 miles from the border with Texas.

While many of the migrants gathered at the meeting expressed their thanks for the offer, they were heard to shout: “No, we are heading north.”

One of those who agreed with the decision was 58-year-old Oscar Sosa of San Pedro Sula, Honduras.

“Our goal is not to remain in Mexico,” Mr Sosa said. “Our goal is to make it to the [US]. We want passage, that’s all.”

The caravan found their path north from Arriaga blocked by federal police carrying plastic shields on Saturday.

Officers said they would reopen the highway and claimed they wanted to give authorities an opportunity to explain the Mexican president’s offer of asylum.

However a large group of migrants said they wanted to get to Mexico City before discussing the issue further.

An estimated 4,000 people remain in the caravan, reduced from a starting total of around 10,000.

Authorities said more than 1,700 had already applied for refugee status in Mexico. Sickness, fear, police harassment and offers of government money to cover the cost of their return journey have also contributed to the dwindling numbers.

Police have reportedly thrown migrant passengers off buses under road insurance regulations and detained smaller groups before they catch up with the main caravan.

The migrant caravan has received widespread attention as a result of fierce opposition from US president Donald Trump ahead of the mid-term elections.

At a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, he claimed the Democrats “want to invite caravan after caravan of illegal immigrants into our country and they want to sign up them for free health care, welfare, and they want to sign them up for the right to vote.”

He has claimed that gang members and “Middle Easterners” are mixed in with the group and has also threatened to cut aid to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador if the caravan is not stopped.

US defence secretary Jim Mattis approved a request from the Department of Homeland Security for several hundred additional troops at the southern border.

Activists with the Pueblo sin Fronteras group, which is supporting the migrants in the caravan, said the caravan would travel towards Tapanatepec in Oaxaca state over the weekend.

Additional reporting by Associated Press