Border & Immigration

UN Agency: Many In Caravan Headed For U.S. Say They're Fleeing

By The Associated Press

Published November 9, 2018 at 2:53 PM PST

This story was published more than 5 years ago.

Jose Pedro Rosales Fernandez, 18, from Progreso, Honduras, holds his four-month-old son Dariel, inside the sports complex where thousands of migrants have been camped out for several days in Mexico City, Friday, Nov. 9, 2018. About 500 Central American migrants headed out of Mexico City on Friday to embark on the longest and most dangerous leg of their journey to the U.S. border, while thousands more were waiting one day more at a massive improvised shelter.

The U.N.'s migration agency has released a survey of migrants in a caravan heading toward the United States in which nearly half of respondents said they are fleeing violence or insecurity.

The International Organization for Migration questioned 286 people in a caravan of about 1,700 people who left El Salvador's capital on Oct. 31. IOM said it was one of several caravans crossing into Mexico.

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Nearly four-fifths of respondents said they were seeking a better life in the U.S. About 45 percent said they were fleeing violence or insecurity. About 3 percent cited hopes for family reunification, and some 8 percent said they were LGBTI.

Respondents could provide more than one answer.

U.S. President Donald Trump has suggested terrorists or criminals could be among the migrants heading toward the U.S.