
These are the hellish conditions that are driving members of the Central American migrant caravan to finally turn their backs on their US dream - by 'self-deporting'.

Despite traveling as much as 4,500 miles - much of it on foot - hundreds of migrants have already accepted free flights home rather than stay longer in the filth-strewn sports complex that has become their temporary home in Tijuana, Mexico.

Lice and respiratory infections are becoming endemic inside the Benito Juarez sports complex and health workers warn that it's a matter of 'when, not if' an outbreak of serious disease sweeps the scruffy labyrinth of tents and tarps sheltering an estimated 6,000 people.

Tijuana's Health Department revealed on Thursday that there are cases of migrants suffering from tuberculosis, chickenpox, skin infections, and there is now a risk of an hepatitis outbreak due to the squalid conditions.

So far, there have been three confirmed cases of tuberculosis, four of chickenpox, and four cases of HIV/AIDS.

Hundreds of Central American migrants are beginning to turn back home rather than continue to stay in the filth-strewn Benito Juarez sports complex in Tijuana, Mexico. Pictured above are migrants arriving from Mexicali making their wait to the makeshift camp

These are the filthy conditions inside the Benito Juarez sports center, housing mostly Hondurans, some Salvadorans, Guatemalans, and Nicaraguans. Pictured above is a migrant brushing his teeth using a bottle of water

The shelter is housing about 6,000 people, many who have been forced to sleep together under large tarps (pictured) as they wait to see if they can enter the United States to seek asylum due to the violence, political and economic hardship they are facing in their homeland

In the past few days they have had cases of pneumonia and chicken pox - a chilling development in conditions ripe for an epidemic. Officials revealed there is also a risk of an hepatitis outbreak due to squalor

Migrants have been taking showers out in the open. DailyMail.com counted only nine open air showers divided into three blocks, with one designated for female migrants who use blankets as a makeshift screen for a degree of privacy

Clara Daniela (left) 17 yrs, her partner Jose Hernandez (left), 25 yrs and their one-year-old son Fernando who all fled El Salvador because of violence, told DailyMail.com that they are 'more and more' tempted to go home because conditions are so bad

The tumbledown facility a hundred feet from the Mexico-US border has become the last refuge for members of the snaking human convoy who fled gang-plagued Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador around six weeks ago, igniting a political storm and prompting President Donald Trump to send US troops to the border.

But with Trump's continuing tough rhetoric and US immigration 'metering' the number of asylum applications to between 40 and 80 cases per day, the reality of having to spend weeks or even months camped out on blankets and rags in a fetid limbo is hitting home.

Mexican officials revealed that around 200 migrants volunteered this week for repatriation, with more than a hundred having already flown home from Tijuana's airport Monday.

A further 98 were forcibly removed after Sunday's violent clashes at the border when US agents were accused of firing tears gas on a crowd of migrants, including kids.

Clara Daniela, 17, fled El Salvador when her cousin was killed for refusing to join a gang, traveling for 45 days with her partner Jose Hernandez, 25, and one-year-old Fernando, to reach Tijuana.

'We sleep in the open. It's very cold at night. We can't even make a tent as there is nothing to attach it to,' she told DailyMail.com.

'The smell is so bad. There is no privacy for women when you take a shower.

'There are organizations here helping people who have had enough to go home, they take you on a bus and put you on a plane - it's easy.

'We will try to stay for now but it's becoming more and more tempting to go.'

Honduran national Fanny Roxana Pavon, 25, has been on the road five months but her priority is the health of five-year-old daughter Elizabeth Munoz.

'The bathrooms are terrible. The camp is a bad environment for children and there is so much dust. And if it's bad now, wait until it rains,' she told DailyMail.com.

The tumbledown facility a hundred feet from the Mexico-US border has become the last refuge for members of the snaking human convoy who fled gang-plagued Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador around six weeks ago, igniting a political storm and prompting President Donald Trump to send US troops to the border

There is near constant soundtrack of coughs and sneezing and the stench from the toilets wafts across the entire camp, mingling with the smell of rotting trash, tobacco and occasional wafts of cannabis smoke

Federal health workers and NGOs work from trucks, providing free health checkups and treating caravaners for head lice, blisters and flu

Tijuana's Health Department revealed on Thursday that many are suffering from tuberculosis, chickenpox, and other skin infections. So far, there have been three confirmed cases of tuberculosis, four of chickenpox, and four cases of HIV/AIDS. Pictured in the background is sign saying 'no spitting'

'We cannot stay very much longer like this - I just hope they will process our paperwork soon.'

DailyMail.com toured the crumbling Benito Juarez sports complex Wednesday where thousands of migrants have been bedded down for the past two weeks under tents or makeshift canopies built from ropes and plastic sheeting.

A handful of desperate residents have even used twigs and branches to build nest-like homes with the temperatures likely to turn chilly and rains forecast by the end of the week.

The earliest arrivals were able to stake their claims to the limited space inside an indoor basketball court with bathrooms and showers.

Some latecomers opted for the neighboring playground and garden areas where there's at least trees for shade and shelter.

The vast majority, however, are camped out on almost every spare inch of ground in the neighboring Little Padres baseball field, named in homage to the San Diego Padres MLB team which plays its games 20 miles north.

DailyMail.com counted 35 porta potties for the thousands of residents, many overflowing with excrement and with no means for the migrants to wash their hands.

There were nine open air showers divided into three blocks, with one designated for female migrants who use blankets as a makeshift screen for a degree of privacy.

The US-Mexico border fence looms large beyond centerfield, almost casting a shadow directly on the sport complex whose residents can only dream about the new lives they crave on the other side.

There is near constant soundtrack of coughs and sneezing and the stench from the toilets wafts across the entire camp, mingling with the smell of rotting trash, tobacco and occasional wafts of cannabis smoke.

Carlos Betanzos, 32, a coordinator for the Medical Brigades of Nazarenas, a non-profit ( of the World Wide Evangelical organization) who is providing medical aid to migrants at the Benito Juarez sports center, says 'conditions are there for a major infection'

Volunteers wear mask in order to avoid being infected with an illness.

Health workers warn the main danger is flu since temperatures are beginning to drop and it is expected to rain

Honduran Jessica Rodas, 25, and her two kids Dezelynn, three, and Ana, five, were among the 70 or so people being treated for head lice Tuesday. Rodas revealed they've had head lice for 18 days

DailyMail.com counted 35 porta potties for the thousands of residents, many overflowing with excrement and with no means for the migrants to wash their hands

If it wasn't for volunteers offering to clean up, 'the place would be overflowing with trash,' one helper said

Volunteers like Honduran national Carlos Reyes, 35, are given surgical masks and gloves and asked to help keep order.

He told DailyMail.com he approached Mexican officials offering to pick up trash and now removes around 100 bags a day, working from 7am to 10pm with no money or benefits.

'If the volunteers didn't come forward to help the place would be overflowing with trash,' he said. 'We also help to keep order in the food lines.

'It's sad to see we left our countries to better ourselves, to have a better life and this is how we live, herded like animals.

'But we survive by coming together. We try to get along with each other.'

Despite the trickle of migrants leaving voluntarily, the numbers are still growing by the day. Around 500 people arrived Tuesday, waiting in line for a wristband letting them come in and out.

Some migrants have decided it's so overcrowded inside the camp that they would rather pitch their tents outside in the streets.

A few feet away, vendors sell donuts and sugary cakes for ten pesos. Lines for free plates of beans and rice supplied by the federal government snake hundreds of yards.

Federal health workers and NGOs work from trucks, providing free health checkups and treating caravaners for head lice, blisters and flu.

In the past few days they have had cases of pneumonia and chicken pox - a chilling development in conditions ripe for an epidemic.

'People aren't able to take showers, they sleep on the floor, nobody is cleaning the bathrooms, so the conditions are there for a major infection,' said Carlos Betanzos, a coordinator for Ministerios Nazarenos de Compasión, an Evangelical aid group.

The vast majority are camped out on almost every spare inch of ground in the neighboring Little Padres baseball field, named in homage to the San Diego Padres MLB team which plays its games 20 miles north

Some migrants have decided it's so overcrowded inside the camp that they would rather pitch their tents outside in the streets

A handful of desperate residents have even used twigs and branches to build nest-like homes with the temperatures likely to turn chilly and rains forecast by the end of the week

Honduran Fanny Roxana Pavon, 25, has been on the road five months but her priority is the health of five-year-old daughter Elizabeth Munoz

The conditions are perhaps even worse for children, many who were taken on the journey by their mothers. Above a boy drinks milk out of sippy cup

People have bedded down under tents or makeshift canopies built from ropes and plastic sheeting

'We've had lung disease, flu, diarrhea, hypertension. One guy yesterday had chicken pox - but thankfully just one.

'The main danger is flu because it's getting colder and it's going to rain. If there is chicken pox it will be impossible to stop, it could infect thousands.

'If nothing changes it's a case of when, not if, there is a major outbreak of disease.

'I would love to say there will not be deaths here, but it can happen because there are not enough doctors and medicine. The government was not ready for this many people.'

Honduran Jessica Rodas, 25, and her two kids Dezelynn, three, and Ana, five, were among the 70 or so people being treated for head lice Tuesday.

'We've had it about 18 days now, all I could do was comb the children's hair to relieve the itching,' she said.

'The majority of people inside the camp have lice so I imagine that we will get it again the moment we go back inside.

'I can only hope that the President of the United States grants us asylum soon as we cannot take much more.'

The migrant caravan originated in Honduras on October 12 when it was erroneously reported on local TV that a radio host, Bartolo Fuentes, was willing to pay transportation costs for anyone travelling to the US.

Around 150 migrants set off from the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula. By the time they crossed into Mexico one week later the column had swollen to 7,200 participants.

The mass movement inspired several more caravans to form in neighboring El Salvador amid a flurry of angry Tweets from President Donald Trump who vowed to repel what he described as an 'invasion'.

Supporters say the migrants are fleeing persecution and banding together so they are not preyed upon by gangs.

Despite the trickle of migrants leaving voluntarily, the numbers are still growing by the day

Around 500 people arrived Tuesday, waiting in line for a wristband letting them come in and out

Migrants, some with children in arm, who have just arrived from Mexicali wait to enter the sports complex

Mexican officials deported 98 people for their part in the skirmish against US security agents and have banned migrants from holding protest marches close to the border

But Trump deployed 5,000 US troops to the border after accusing the caravan of harboring an assortment of criminals, from violent MS-13 gangsters to Middle Eastern terrorists from ISIS.

Sunday saw the first real clashes between migrants and US security agents, who fired tear gas on a group of migrants, including children, who 'rushed' the border around ten blocks from the Benito Juarez sports complex.

While the President was attacked in the media for his 'draconian' response, many of the camp's residents told DailyMail.com they blamed the 100 or so 'troublemakers' who tried to storm the fences.

Mexican officials deported 98 people for their part in the skirmish and have banned migrants from holding protest marches close to the border.

They have also stepped up efforts to entice caravaners to leave of their own accord - and offer that once seemed unthinkable but it now increasingly appealing as winter sets in and temperatures fall to the mid-50s.

Others will settle for asylum in Mexico where they hope to secure work permits for a series of new construction projects proposed by the incoming government of Mexico's left wing President elect, Andrés Manuel López, who takes power Saturday.

'There is a process, you have to wait your turn. When people jump fences it makes it worse for everyone,' said 35-year-old Edwin Jodani Enmorado, who fled Honduras on October 13 when he learned his 14-year-old son Anthony had been coerced into selling drugs for a gang.

'We have all sorts here. There are a lot of good people here but there are also a lot of bad people - killers, people who were in gangs, people who escaped from prisons.

'There are people smoking drugs but I think the Mexicans are gradually removing them.

'Some people are leaving but for me there is no option but to stay. I don't want to grow up with my kids having to pay some gangster 50 bucks a week just to live in peace in their own homes.'