“Immigration procedures are delayed due to the closure of INAMI offices”

By Oscar Blue Ramirez

TAPACHULA, CHIAPAS.- After the acts of vandalism of Central American and extra-continental migrants, the offices of the Tapachula-based National Migration Institute (INAMI) in the Solidaridad Las Vegas neighborhood were closed from last Friday until Monday, May 21. March. The closure brought with it a delay in the immigration process for humanitarian visas, which on average serve 800 migrants daily. Only the iron doors that were vandalized were reinstalled in the building and it is expected that the offices will be reopened to the public in March. The confrontation between Central American migrants and INAMI staff took place last Friday, when people in a context of mobility, frustrated by poor attention from that unit and the lack of resources to deliver humanitarian visas, threw stones at the building. The balance was three people with minor injuries, including two INAMI workers and a migrant with a head injured after stone projectiles launched by the National Guard. According to reports, the confrontation lasted for more than 3 hours, between stones thrown by the migrants and the National Guard at the building, for which more security elements had to intervene to return order to the area.