US Sees Surge of African Migrants Along Southern Border

There has been a drastic increase of African migrants at the United States (U.S.) border, migration agents report, as citizens of various African countries flee “humanitarian crisis” in their homelands.

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Since May 30, over 500 African migrants have registered along the Del Rio border in Texas, arriving from Angola, Cameroon, and the Republic of the Congo, the U.S Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) informed.

“We are continuing to see a rise in apprehensions of immigrants from countries not normally encountered in our area. Groups of family units from around the world are traveling thousands of miles just to enter the United States,” Del Rio Sector Chief Patrol Agent Raul Ortiz said in a statement.

Some 1,500 Central and West African refugees are crowding at the border, requesting asylum, however, the process is excruciatingly slow, forcing some to wait as long as two months for a response.

“They don’t speak the language, they don’t have money, they’re not very well-received in Mexico,” Methodist pastor and the director of a migrant shelter in Laredo, Mike Smith, said, adding that “they’re in limbo.”

Since October, over 27,000 people from 37 countries have been apprehended. Reports show that the number of non-Mexican migrants has increased by 500 percent as compared to the same time period last year.

"When we have 4,000 people in custody, we consider it high. If there are 6,000 people in custody, we considered it a crisis. Right now, we have nearly 19,000 people in custody. So it's just off the charts," CBP's acting commissioner John Sanders told the media.