I know that by putting up this post I'm interrupting the flow of my narrative, but I haven't uploaded the photos from the rest of the trip on to my computer and I want to include some in the next installment of the "Kristian and Krystin Vacation Story." So I thought I would write about some of the interesting news stories I've read in the Guatemalan newspapers recently. It's rather appropriate, given that I'm down here studying, in part, the media. I'll keep posting interesting news stories from down here when they come up.
In today's Prensa Libre, one of the headlines read: "Migrants from Bhutan Remain Locked in the Airport." Ok, so it's not the best translation, but I couldn't think of a better way to translate "encerrados." It's a word usually used to talk about people who have been put in jail; it implies being shut in, locked up, enclosed, captured. The beginning of the article reads, "Like in the Tom Hanks movie The Terminal, three migrants from Bhutan, Asia, reside in La Aurora International Airport since last week after having lost their documents." Apparently no one can talk to them because they speak an obscure dialect so they are communicating with hand signs. Their stuck in a particular terminal in the airport without food and clean water and are sleeping on the floor and begging from travelers for money to get something to eat and drink. The authorities took one of the men to the hospital at one point last week because he was coughing blood and was severely dehydrated, but once he was stabilized he was sent back to the airport. A representative from the Human Rights Commission notes in the article that the airport is not the place to keep people indefinitely. The airport claims it is an ongoing Immigration investigation, while the director of Immigration claims that since these men haven't actually entered Guatemala (since they don't have passports), it's a problem for the airport. If that isn't bad enough, there is actually another case of people being held in the airport here as well: four Chinese women have been stuck in La Aurora airport for 23 days. These women tried to enter Guatemala with false documents, but unlike the unfortunate Bhutanese (is that how you refer to people from Bhutan?), the Chinese women are being taken care of by the airline that brought them to Guatemala. TACA, the airline that ran the flight the Chinese women took to Guatemala, is apparently paying for food and water for these ladies and is letting them shower in the men's bathroom in the hangers and set them up in a VIP area.
Ok, seriously, is that not a little bit insane? It is certainly an interesting case of institutional ineptitude. I wonder if something like this would happen in the States. I seriously doubt it...the Department of Homeland Security wouldn't let immigrants with no passports live in an airport terminal (or whatever agency is in charge of that sort of thing). I'm sure that there is some reason why these people aren't just sent back to their home countries, most likely that either they can't afford the ticket (!) or that they are seeking refugee status or something? But the article doesn't say anything about that. I'm dumbfounded, truly.
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