Shortly after the announcement of mobilization in the Russian Federation, about 12.5 thousand Russians tried to cross the Mexican border — record numbers for a country in another part of the world. And now Mexico continues to experience a huge influx of refugees from the CIS countries, the flow has increased 11 times. The attitude towards illegal immigrants here is very harsh. Tourists from Russia know about this from chats and social networks, but no one thinks that this will happen to them. Tyumen Marina Khomutinina, who flew to Mexico in February to conquer the Orizaba volcano with her husband and friends, did not expect trouble either. How a woman was unexpectedly detained at the Mexico City airport and what she had to experience in six hours, she told on the portal 72.RU .
To the toilet — in single file and under supervision
During the passport check, Marina was detained by border guards. It was about 18 o’clock on the clock. This is how she describes the room where she was taken: “20 people on benches, sad faces, the smell of despair hangs in the air.” The Russian woman’s iPhone was immediately taken away, having taped a boarding pass on it. The tourist was brought into a room where the window covers the entire wall and the passport control area is visible. The glass wall also opens into the corridor, and there is a warden behind it. Here I had to fill out a form with information about myself.
“The documents were taken away, I can’t figure out how to fill in all the data right away. I’m in shock and shaking. I don’t understand much from fright yet,” Marina recalls.
The Russian woman filled out her personal information in English, told briefly about the purpose of the trip: she arrived with her husband and friends, we are climbing the Orizaba volcano. We live three days in Mexico City, then three days in Puebla and in a camp at the foot of the mountain.
Then, one by one, they began to bring people from different flights. Russian Yulia and her son were among them: they were vacationing in Cuba with a family with three children, they flew to Mexico on excursions. The travel agency issued them a whole folder of papers, but Yulia and her son were detained because he had a visa with a typo. One by one, people began to be called in for questioning, the Spaniards were the first.
“I was sitting staring at the floor. People returned from the interrogation pale and confused. I remember all the phrases in English and make sentences for the conversation. The policeman comes, the one who brought me here, and asks: “Do you want to go to the bathroom?“I nod, she waves back — let’s go. There are four of us women, and we go down in single file to the general arrival hall. There is a toilet nearby. I look around and look for my husband with my eyes. There is no one there. There is a black woman in the toilet, we came together, holding out wet wipes and smiling,” Marina said.
Three ways
After a while, it became clear to Marina that those who were taken to the left after interrogation were sent for deportation. Those to the right are released. And those who are photographed against the wall are sent to prison, they have serious problems with their documents. Women were crying all the time next to Marina.
“I held on. The main thing is not to feel sorry for yourself and not to cry, but I really wanted to. I smiled and sent my husband hearts through the window. The police with the inscription MARINA drove her husband away from the window. Next to him was the husband of my new friend Julia. Sometimes we talked with her, I remembered the story that my friend is now in Mexico and is going to flee to the United States with her family. She told me. Julia’s face changed and she fell silent. She had nothing to smile about. It became clear to me that I had hit the nail on the head. Refugees,” recalls a Russian tourist.
After a while, a girl and an elderly man appeared in the room, they were holding Russian passports in their hands, but they spoke Moldovan. Grandfather was very old and looked little like a tourist. The girl was wearing a nylon shawl, her hair was hidden, in a black floor-length skirt and with a Bible, both dressed very modestly. According to them, they flew to Mexico from Krasnodar, to visit.
Four hours have passed. Neither water nor food were given to the detainees. Marina wanted to go to the toilet, she and a couple of other people were lined up in single file and led towards the “deportation”.
“Walking in a column of detainees along a long empty corridor is completely unpleasant. It turned out to be even more unpleasant to get into that very room for the expelled. The area of the squares is 30, shelves with bunks on which people of different skin colors lie,” the Russian woman said.
Then the detainees were lined up with their backs to the wall. Later, Marina realized that it was the most humiliating and unpleasant moment. Foreigners were allowed to approach one by one to the table where the policewoman was sitting, unwrap toilet paper and go to the bathroom where the camera was hanging.
Cross-examination
At 22:30, a guard with Marina’s passport entered the room with migrants and nodded at the exit. A tired Mexican official was sitting in the interrogation room. He asked the tourist for what purpose she had come, how much money she had with her, who she was traveling with. After her story, he concluded, “Okay, give me 10 minutes to check the information.”
Half an hour later, exhausted people were still changing in the “waiting room”. Those who were called for questioning said that they were required to remove the password from their phone, checked all chats, looked at all photos. The interrogations were biased and aggressive. Some were called in for questioning six times. In a few hours, according to Marina, 45 passengers from different flights visited the room.
It was not until midnight that Marina was finally invited to another office. They put a visa in their passport and released them, there were no apologies or explanations after six hours of detention. At that moment, the woman sternly ordered herself not to cry.
“I hear my husband’s voice. In a second I reach him, fall into his arms and start sobbing. Hysteria. It’s shaking. My husband stood downstairs for six hours and waited for me. He was even worse off. I can’t even imagine how much worse it is. An hour later we were in the center of Mexico City. We were sitting in a diner, eating tacos and drinking beer. They reasoned that all this Mexican migrant fishing was complete bullshit. They don’t catch who they need, and the rest just get on their nerves harshly,” Marina finished her story.
Read stories about how Russians move to other countries for permanent residence by tag #emigration on Vokrugsveta.ru .
According to the materials 72.RU .
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