Honduran migrants walk near the Agua Caliente customs office in western Honduras on January 16, 2020. Photo: Xinhua

A new migrant caravan that left Honduras on Wednesday is nearing Mexico's southern border, the Mexican Interior Ministry said on Friday.

Mexico's National Institute of Immigration (INM) will deal with applications for temporary employment or asylum, and the migrants will be restricted to the southern area while their immigration requests are processed, the ministry said in a release.

"Those who freely and voluntarily decide to do so may remain in Mexico as temporary workers in the southern part of the country," the release said.

Hundreds of migrants including children joined the caravan in the northwestern Honduran city of San Pedro Sula on Wednesday, with many of them hoping to reach the US-Mexican border.

On Wednesday, Mexican Interior Minister Olga Sanchez Cordero ruled out granting entry to those trying to reach the US border via Mexico.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Friday that the caravan has between 2,500 and 3,000 Hondurans and Salvadorans, and that Mexico will offer them jobs, shelter and medical attention in the border area.

Media reports said the new caravan from Honduras was convened through social media as the previous ones. Central American migrant caravans increased in number at the end of 2018 and beginning of 2019, sparking tensions between Mexico and the United States.