On the southern border of the country is the number migrants by 60 percent, according to estimates from the Office of Attention to Migrants in Tapachula, Chiapas.
The body revealed to MILLENNIUM that the monthly average they had registered was 10 thousand people, but in the months of January, February, March and so far in April they have had 4 thousand cases, which means that the passage of migrants in this region has decreased significantly.
Although the departure of a new caravan has already been announced that will depart at sunrise on April 15 from San Pedro Sula, Honduras to the border with Guatemala.
It is estimated that about 800 people have concentrated in the bus station of that place to start the march in the first minutes of this Thursday and again, the authorities of Honduras Y Guatemala has announced not to allow irregular migration and will launch operations at their border.
In contrast, UNHCR, the Agency for HEM-HER-IT for Refugees Mexico to strengthen and expand its asylum procedures amid a significant increase in the number of people requesting it.
The agency reported that while the entry of migrants through the Chiapas-Guatemala border has declined, the number of requests for asylum for migrants who have lived in border municipalities in the region for six months.
He specified that, in the first quarter of 2021, the Mexican Commission for Aid to Refugees (Comar), registered 22 thousand 606 new asylum applications, which was 31 percent more than in the first quarter of 2020 and an increase of 77 percent compared to the same period in 2019; While March of this year marked a record high for monthly asylum applications, it was 9 thousand 76.
The agency indicates that this increase reflects the upward trend of the pre-pandemic, which began in 2014 and continues as the country expanded its capacity to process asylum applications and integrate refugees.
He added that between 2014 and 2019 the number of asylum applications registered in Mexico from 2,137 to 70,302, an increase of more than 3,000 percent.
Most asylum claims are related to violence affecting hundreds of thousands of people in certain parts of Central America, including threats, forced recruitment, extortion, sexual assaults and murder.
Preventing the increase in the number of asylum applications since 2018 UNHCR has contributed to increasing the case registration and processing capacity of the Comar, including through hiring staff and support in opening a new processing center in the city Tapachula, Chiapas, south of Mexico.
The UNHCR It points out that with this scenario it has launched an innovative program that considers relocating refugees to places where they can take advantage of job and educational opportunities in cities in the center and north of Mexico.
At the end of 2020, UNHCR completed construction of a new 300-bed shelter for asylum seekers and refugees in Tapachula. In 2021, UNHCR will complete the construction of a new facility in Monterrey for 80 people and another for 100 in San Cristóbal de las Casas in southern Mexico, ”reveals Pierre Marc René, UNHCR’s information attaché in Chiapas, to Milenio.
He added that while Mexico was once considered a transit country for many fleeing Central America, the recent surge in asylum applications confirms that it has also become a place where many refugees can find protection and start their lives afresh.
ledz