Mexico free bus transport offer to migrants on caravan withdrawn

Thousands of migrants from Central America heading for the US-Mexico border have had an offer of free bus transport to Mexico City withdrawn.

The governor of the Mexican state of Veracruz, Miguel Angel Yunes, said on Friday buses would be provided to carry migrants to the nation's capital.

However, Yunes cancelled the offer just hours later, blaming a water shortage in the city for his decision.

In a video posted to Twitter on Friday, Yunes said that a "serious shortage of water" in Mexico City over the weekend meant that it would be wrong to transport the migrants there.

"The shortage will affect more than seven million people," he said, adding that his initial offer of supplying buses would have made the situation worse.

"I would like to ask the migrants, while the problems get solved and we wait for an in-depth solution to this issue, that they accept an invitation to go to a city of Veracruz further to the south, to a bigger city where they will have adequate installations to provide them with safety."

Replying to Yunes in an open letter, the migrants said the governor's decision to withdraw his offer to help transport people hundreds of kilometres was unacceptable.

"We consider that the argument of the shortage of water is not a valid one," they wrote, urging Yunes to "fulfil his offer".

"The people in the caravan have walked for weeks under the rain and sun from Central America, where they left their houses and families; they were forced to leave their countries due to the violence, death and hunger," the letter reads.

"The hard conditions, the lack of proper shelter and proper food has impacted on the health of the people," it adds.

Thousands of migrants from Central America are trudging north towards the US-Mexico border.

The caravan, now some 5,000 people, set off from Honduras several weeks ago.

They say they are fleeing persecution, poverty and violence in their home countries of Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador.

While American President Donald Trump has said the "invasion" of migrants would find the US military waiting for them and, on 29 October, it was announced that the US would send 5,200 troops to the border with Mexico.