About 15 years ago I was shadowing a local journalist on Peru’s northern coast who was reporting on a group of 20 Chinese nationals local police found lost in the nearby desert. They’d arrived on a container ship that sailed from China to Lima and had paid traffickers to get them to Ecuador. From there they planned to fly to Panama and make their way to the U.S.-Mexico border. The fact that people were willing to cross an ocean in a shipping container and traverse parts of two continents on foot and by bus blew my mind. It doesn’t anymore.
I’ve spent the last four years running a humanitarian news project called El Migrante, which provides information about resources to migrants in Mexico. As part of the nonprofit Internews organization, we spend our days talking to people about what made them leave their homes, what their goals are, and what they need to know to help them stay safe and find stability. We share answers to their questions via WhatsApp, a printed newspaper and a radio show.
We’ve written about how to get medical care after losing an arm and a leg to the Beast, the freight train that runs from southern Mexico to the U.S. border and is known for mutilating those who slip; how to deal with local employers who discriminate against migrants; and about specific U.S. immigration policies.
