A makeshift shelter in Tijuana leaves many people in need

Portable showers are expected to arrive Saturday, according to an employee of the city of Tijuana.

For most of the week, the women at the Benito Juarez Sports Complex, converted into a temporary shelter, showered, brushed their teeth and did laundry in two toilets with less than a dozen toilets and six sinks. One of the two bathrooms had shared showers.

On Friday, Sindy Gómez, who was hoping to seek asylum in the United States, did her laundry: she washed her t-shirt in a sink and dried it under a hand dryer.

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"The truth is that it is not enough because there are a lot of people," said Gómez about the bathrooms. "You must be patient."

As migrants continue to arrive in Tijuana – thousands more are expected over the weekend – officials are catching up. City officials said they had money to operate the shelter for two weeks.

The cleaning crews are trying to manage both bathrooms on November 16, 2018, this area available to migrants staying at the Benito Juarez Sports Complex in Tijuana, Mexico, while waiting for the opportunity to apply for accommodation. asylum in the United States. (Photo: Omar Ornelas, The Desert Sun-USA NETWORK TODAY)

They asked the federal government to pay $ 4 million.

"No city in the world is ready to receive this … avalanche," said Friday the mayor of Tijuana, Juan Manuel Gastelum, at a press conference.

But he assured people that the situation was not a humanitarian crisis.

"There would be a humanitarian crisis if they did not have water, if they had nothing to survive," he said. Because migrants have access to water, food and medical care, "I would not dare to speak of a humanitarian crisis".

The first big wave of members of the caravan arrived Tuesday morning. But instead of going to the city's migrant reception centers, equipped to accommodate around 900 people, many chose to sleep near the border fence in the Playas district of Tijuana, which angered residents .

In response, officials opened the shelter Wednesday and began offering transportation to the facility that evening.

The sports complex includes indoor and outdoor basketball courts, baseball and football fields and a playground. Friday morning, the village had been transformed into a small village with several large tents on the basketball courts, where some slept on thin foam mattresses.

Others were camping in their own tents on grassy areas. The most inventive ones were nestled in nooks beneath the bleachers overlooking a baseball field.

People hung their clothes on fences and on the rails of the stands. Enterprising young men were walking around selling cigarettes (two for five pesos) and phone chargers (40 pesos).

Outside the sports center, some had set up makeshift campgrounds on the sidewalks, chaining blankets like camping tarpaulins for more privacy.

Caravans are difficult because many people arrive in a short time, said Gustavo Magallanes, head of migrant affairs for the state of Baja California. But it's not a crisis.

Resources are limited because state and local governments are nearing the end of their fiscal year, he said. But he stressed that this is not a crisis.

But while authorities responded to concerns about toilets, some migrants expressed another problem: hunger.

On Friday morning, Héctor Osorto stood in line waiting for a bean sandwich and coffee. Half a dozen people from the nearby town of Rosarito had brought enough breakfast to serve about 300 migrants.

Osorto said he left Honduras because of poverty and insecurity.

Throughout the caravan's long journey through Mexico, residents and local governments provided migrants with food, clothing and other necessities. But in Tijuana, things were different, he said.

Migrants at the Benito Juarez Sports Complex in Tijuana, Mexico, use portable bathrooms that were set up on November 16, 2018, after human rights groups watched the progress of the caravan and worried about the lack of space. of bathrooms. (Photo: Omar Ornelas, The Desert Sun-USA NETWORK TODAY)

Few gave food, Osorto said. And he was hungry.

"I think it's a strategy to make us lose hope, make us leave and come back to our country," he said.

One official said the center feeds migrants three times a day. Another said twice a day.

Gómez, the woman who did her laundry in the bathroom, also said that she was hungry.

"We got used to it," she said. She had heard that migrants would be fed twice a day.

She too felt like she was being treated differently in Tijuana.

"Since we have reached the border, everyone thinks it's a punishment," she said about their treatment. "The truth is that they do not want us to be here."

Follow Rebecca Plevin on Twitter: @rebeccaplevin

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