Sitting on a wooden bench at a migrant shelter on Guatemala’s border with Mexico, Jean rattles off how much he and his wife paid to travel from Chile: $1,200 to a coyote for a bus north to Colombia, $100 to cross the Gulf of Urabá, and $400 to another smuggler to traverse the deadly Darién Gap, where they were abandoned to trek five days through the jungle to Panama.
They spent even more of their scant resources moving through Central America, staying at shelters until they reached the Suchiate River, just shy of Mexico. The journey from Chile took three weeks and came nearly three years after fleeing their native Haiti. Jean, who Devex is identifying by a pseudonym due to his immigration status, left the island nation in 2019 because of widespread kidnapping and murder, as well as the dismal chance of finding work.
“Being an immigrant is very difficult; it’s a sad and miserable experience,” Jean, who is 28, told Devex in Haitian Creole through an interpreter. “Lack of sleep, lack of food, and praying to God to be able to arrive fast and [escape] all the bad people.”
While he and his wife hope for their dream life in Mexico — after stints in Chile, Brazil, and Suriname — many Haitian migrants and asylum-seekers don’t find it such a welcoming place after years and thousands of miles on the road.
Devex interviewed almost two dozen Haitian migrants and refugees — and the NGOs helping them — who spoke of the challenges, and sometimes outright hostility, they face from Mexican authorities, aid agencies, and residents as non-Spanish speakers with little access to legal information in their native Creole.
Keep reading: Join Devex on the ground in Mexico as we document the plight of Haitian migrants and asylum-seekers in this visual story.
About the author
Teresa Welshtmawelsh
Teresa Welsh is a Senior Reporter at Devex. She has reported from more than 10 countries and is currently based in Washington, D.C. Her coverage focuses on Latin America; U.S. foreign assistance policy; fragile states; food systems and nutrition; and refugees and migration. Prior to joining Devex, Teresa worked at McClatchy's Washington Bureau and covered foreign affairs for U.S. News and World Report. She was a reporter in Colombia, where she previously lived teaching English. Teresa earned bachelor of arts degrees in journalism and Latin American studies from the University of Wisconsin.