New theme park's Crossing the (fake) border

Crossing the (fake) border

A new theme park gives thrill-seekers the chance to play at being desperate Mexicans trying to illegally cross the border to the US.

Visitors to the Parque EcoAlberto are put in the position of workers struggling to escape across the Mexican border.

They must hike through undergrowth, dash down steep hills and across rivers, and slip under barbed-wire fences, reports Metro.

Also, they must stay out of the crossfire of watchful border guards during the four-hour night-time ordeal known as 'caminata nocturna'.

Each visitor pays the equivalent of £10 for the privilege at the theme park in Hidalgo, actually a comfortable 700miles from the US border.

Some groups have criticised the theme park organisers for trivialising the plight of those trying to escape to the US.

But according to Alfonso Martinez, who plays a people-smuggler in the game, the mock-escapes 'let people get a glimpse of the suffering that migrants endure'.

The theme park also offers river-rafting and more comfortable cabin accommodation, but more than 3,000 people have tried out the caminata nocturna so far.