'Dramatic' rise in African migrants arriving at US border

[left-of-center2012]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-48548031

US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) says the "dramatic rise" in migrants from African countries arriving in the area is a "humanitarian crisis". More than 500 African migrants have arrived at Del Rio border patrol sector in the past week, since 30 May.
Most of these people are families that have travelled from Angola, Cameroon and the Republic of Congo, CBP said.

Last week, on 30 May, one large group of 116 people who had all originally travelled from African countries arrived at the southern border. In a statement, Del Rio Sector's chief patrol agent Raul L Ortiz said that language barriers and cultural differences were also placing "additional burdens on [border patrol] processing stations".

Local news reporter Jaleesa Irizarry tweeted that the city was "in desperate need for French-speaking volunteers", and that local centres expected up to 300 more migrants to arrive in the next few days.

Some African migrants described travelling from their home countries to Brazil, before making their way north through Colombia and Central America towards the US-Mexico border. Such a journey typically takes several months.

In May, a record 144,278 migrants arrived at the southern border, more than 100,000 of whom were families and children.