PIJIJIAPAN, Mexico (AP) — The Latest on the caravan of Central American migrants hoping to travel through Mexico to the U.S. (all times local):
5:35 a.m. UNICEF says some of the estimated 2,300 children traveling with the migrant caravan in southern Mexico are ill or suffering from dehydration.
The U.N. agency called Friday for the migrant children to be given protection and access to health care, clean water and other essentials. It says it’s working with Mexican authorities to provide drinking water and hygiene products.
UNICEF warns the long and difficult journey to the U.S. border has left the children “exposed to inclement weather, including dangerously hot temperatures, with limited access to proper shelter.”
The agency added that while many of the migrants are fleeing violence or poverty in their home countries, “the journey is long, uncertain and full of danger, including the risk of exploitation, violence and abuse.”
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12:05 a.m.
A severely dehydrated woman connected to an IV line sat on a plastic chair in the gazebo. Nearby, volunteer nurses took temperatures and treated coughs, handing out donated medicine as migrants lined up.
Two weeks of walking have taken a toll on a caravan of migrants now estimated at more than 4,000 as it slowly marches through Chiapas, Mexico’s southernmost state that is far from their goal of reaching the United States.
Yet the migrants were planning what would be their most ambitious single-day trek since they crossed into Mexico, setting their sights for Friday on reaching Arriaga, about 62 miles (100 kilometers) up the coast.