Photos: Teens struggle alone in Mexico after the caravan

Tens of thousands of migrants from various South American countries have been heading to the southwest border of the United States to seek asylum in caravans of varying sizes, on foot and hitchhiking. Only about 9% are actually granted asylum. More than 100,000 immigrants were caught crossing the US-Mexico border in October and November. Nearly half of them were travelling in family groups that included children. Also among the migrants are teens, separated from families and stuck in limbo with no papers to go forward and violence waiting back home.

Updated on: Mar 05, 2019 10:19 AM IST

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Milagro de Jesus Henriquez Ayala, 15, and Josue Mejia Lucero, 17, embrace at the end of a Christian religious service in the Agape World Mission shelter in Tijuana, Mexico. The 15-year-old Salvadoran girl is staying at a shelter in Tijuana with her 13-year-old sister, Xiomara — part of an untold number of Central American youths who travelled with a migrant caravan that crossed Mexico and landed here in November. (Emilio Espejel / AP)

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Josue Mejia Lucero (L), smokes along with his girlfriend’s sister Xiomara Henriquez Ayala, 13, outside the Agape World Mission shelter. The girls joined the caravan so they could meet their father, who had left them in Mexico’s southern border city of Tapachula in August while he tried to get to the United States. (Emilio Espejel / AP)

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A US border barrier and secondary fence are seen from Tijuana, Mexico. But when the sisters arrived in Tijuana, they heard from family back home in El Salvador that their father had crossed the border and ended up deported. They now are unsure of where to go. (Emilio Espejel / AP)

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Xiomara Henriquez Ayala peers over the US border fence from Tijuana as Josue Mejia Lucero and his sister Lucero, 25, look on while looking for a way to help Lucero and her son cross undetected. Milagro says they no longer need their father: She’s about to become a parent herself and considers herself something of a mother to Xiomara after being forced to care for her on her own. (Emilio Espejel / AP)

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Josue Mejia Lucero (L), and Milagro de Jesus Henriquez Ayala, relax on their bed as Milagro’s sister Xiomara jokes around in a clown mask. With Milagro nearly six months pregnant, the girls are too afraid to cross the border wall topped with concertina wire. (Emilio Espejel / AP)

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Xiomara Henriquez Ayala sits atop the bunk bed she shares with 18-year-old Valeria Ramos of Honduras, at the Agape World Mission shelter. The sisters fear being deported to El Salvador, though their parents are there. Back home, gang members had beaten up their father and threatened them for walking into what they consider the gang’s territory on their way to school. (Emilio Espejel / AP)

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A man stands outside the Agape World Mission shelter, topped with a cross, in Tijuana. The sisters travelled with about two dozen other young people as a kind of subgroup of the caravan, which grew to more than 5,000 people. Once in Tijuana, the group scattered, and some crossed into the United States illegally. Others were detained in Mexico and deported. (Emilio Espejel / AP)

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The sisters moved from shelter to shelter, ended up at a hotel that charged less than $2 night. With no money, they offered to clean rooms in exchange. Their diet was mostly juice and cookies. Milagro grew weak and after suffering abdominal pains went to the emergency room. Since then the sisters have been taken in by a minister at Agape Mision Mundial shelter. (Emilio Espejel / AP)

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Milagro is comforted by a local church member during a religious service. Pastor Albert Rivera said he is working with the Salvadoran consulate to get the girls’ birth certificates so they can apply for asylum in Mexcio, attend school and find part-time work. He also is trying to get their mother a Mexican visa so she can come to Tijuana. A San Diego woman has offered to pay for the mother’s plane ticket. (Emilio Espejel / AP)

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At the shelter Milagro is doing well and has a new boyfriend, a 17-year-old Honduran named Josue Javier Medina Lucero who also was part of the caravan, fleeing gang violence. Like the girls, he is alone with no papers, making it difficult to get work. (Emilio Espejel / AP)

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Milagro de Jesus Henriquez Ayala (L), shows her ultrasound scans to Sister Cristina of Agape World Mission. Milagro would like her mother there for when she gives birth. “I never thought I would be a mother so young,” Milagro said. “But it’s Ok. I’ll give him love. That’s all one needs.” (Emilio Espejel / AP)