Mexico_Hawkey_migrants_20191004_003.jpg
Marili Portillo is in Matamoros with her children Madelin, 3, and Josué, 5. They are asylum seekers from Honduras.
Marili left home in July, she paid the guide who helped her to get to the US $10,400, it took them a month to get to the US border where she and her children were kidnapped and held for ransom for 15 days, the ransom was paid. She crossed the river with her children and was arrested when she arrived in the US. Marili says that she was mistreated by border officials who insulted her, and she was kept in an isolation cell for 6 days. She has been deported into Mexico to await the next hearing in her asylum process. "I escaped from Honduras, I had a good job and they [a gang] were extorting money from me. The officials want evidence of that, I don't have documents to prove it, and I can't get them while I'm here".
"Every day, people come here to help us, with food and other things, but it's not enough, there are a lot of people here in this camp, thousands, and we are fighting over what help comes. And now, with the rain, there aren't enough tents, everything gets wet and people are getting sick. But, thanks to the churches, to the help they provide, we are surviving."
![Marili Portillo is in Matamoros with her children Madelin, 3, and Josué, 5. They are asylum seekers from Honduras.<br />
<br />
Marili left home in July, she paid the guide who helped her to get to the US $10,400, it took them a month to get to the US border where she and her children were kidnapped and held for ransom for 15 days, the ransom was paid. She crossed the river with her children and was arrested when she arrived in the US. Marili says that she was mistreated by border officials who insulted her, and she was kept in an isolation cell for 6 days. She has been deported into Mexico to await the next hearing in her asylum process. "I escaped from Honduras, I had a good job and they [a gang] were extorting money from me. The officials want evidence of that, I don't have documents to prove it, and I can't get them while I'm here".<br />
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"Every day, people come here to help us, with food and other things, but it's not enough, there are a lot of people here in this camp, thousands, and we are fighting over what help comes. And now, with the rain, there aren't enough tents, everything gets wet and people are getting sick. But, thanks to the churches, to the help they provide, we are surviving."](https://www.hawkey.co.uk/img-get2/I0000IdO4xNqcM6I/fit=1000x750/g=G00001xW0RyCo9ws/Mexico-Hawkey-migrants-20191004-003.jpg)
