Chaos on Mexico’s southern border due to record number of refugee requests from migrants [VIDEO]

Refugee claims in Mexico rose nearly 30% in 2023 to a record 3,606 in the first quarter, a figure that reflects the chaos and desperation experienced by migrants in Tapachula, on the country’s southern border where more than half of the claims are concentrated.

Within six months Michel Arriaga, migrant A Honduran woman traveling with two young children arrived in Tapachula, where she faced slow processes for getting her documents to Mexico’s State Commission for Relief of Refugees (Comar), in addition to poor service.

Arriaga, a single mother of just 23, is from Santa Rosa de Copan, where she fled due to lack of security and opportunities.

From there he reached Tapachula, on the border Mexico with Guatemala where he met thousands of people from all over the world to cross the country to the United States.

“You can say that Tapachula is the center where all migrants come to find shelter, and I think this number is increasing every day. I think this is a place where there are more migrants than residents,” Arriaga told EFE.

“Among those I have met (there are) Ecuadorians, Colombians, Salvadorans, Hondurans, Haitians, and sometimes it is terrible to see such a situation that it increases and to see Komar’s answers are ineffective, many times the process makes it difficult for us . They take too long,” he added.

Asylum country?

The recovery in the number of refugee claims in the first quarter came after Mexico it received 118,772 requests in 2022, the second-highest number after nearly 130,000 requests in 2021.

But in the first three months, Comar performed only 7,369 procedures, less than a fifth of the total, of which 68% received a positive response.

Lorenza Obdulia Reyes, director of the Todo Porellos shelter, explained that migrants go through their process through meetings with Comar, but they wait for months.

In addition, he condemned that when they receive their visa for humanitarian reasons, they leave Tapachula, but in the state of Veracruz, immigration agents take their documents and return them to this Guatemalan border city.

“The migration situation is very strong and more and more people are emigrating, I don’t agree with caravans because children are suffering, but migration and Komar are forcing them,” he said.

Petition leader countries

By country of origin, the largest number of migrants recognized as refugees are from Honduras, followed by those from Haiti, Venezuela, El Salvador and Cuba.

Claudio José Castro, a Venezuelan migrant who turned 60 in Tapachula, is traveling with his grandson, a minor who has not been documented by Mexican authorities and is still waiting to cross into Mexico and into the United States.

“It (the problem) is quite broad and the process takes a long time, as there is always a movement of people looking for the north, the United States, and they have to get to Tapachula, in the state of Chiapas, in search of asylum, and we solve the problem with documents” he told EFE.

In Venezuela, a migrant studied refrigeration and air conditioning, but was forced to leave his family as he fled from his government due to a lack of job opportunities and now his main goal is to get to the United States.

The presence of migrants at Mexican borders has intensified this year after the US announced new measures, including immediate deportation to Mexico migrants from Haiti, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba illegally crossing the border.

“Upstairs, when we go up, Migration treats us very badly (from Mexico) and returns to us,” Castro accused.

The region is experiencing a record migration flow: 2.76 million undocumented immigrants are detained at the US border with Mexico in fiscal year 2022.

(As reported by EFE)

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