Migrants pin their hopes on Mexico with record number of asylum applications

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – In the face of political uncertainty in the United States, migrants from Central and South America are pinning their hopes on Mexico, which in April received 9,189 requests from the Mexican Commission for Refugee Aid (Comar), the highest monthly figure in its history.

The illusion of a Mexican future is palpable at Casa Mambré, a shelter for asylum seekers where Roxana Villafuerte has been waiting for almost a year for Comar to resolve her application so that she can work and support her nine-month-old baby, whose father is Mexican.

“I intend to stay, my baby was born here, and I feel that here in Mexico, there are opportunities,” the woman from El Salvador said to a press agency on Sunday.

According to a recent study by the Colegio de la Frontera Norte, Roxana, 53% of all asylum seekers in Mexico – 81% in the case of Salvadorans – are fleeing gang violence.

“I had no choice but to say ‘I’ll stay or I’ll see what I can do’, the only option was to leave my country,” says the woman.

BETWEEN RECORDS AND LAGS

Comar received 31,842 asylum requests in the first four months of 2021, an increase of almost 75% compared to 18,142 in the same period of 2020 and 18,527 in 2019.

Honduras leads the requests with 15,842, followed by 4,315 from Haiti, 3,091 from Cuba, 2,460 from El Salvador, 1,818 from Venezuela, 1,615 from Guatemala, and other Latin American countries.

Comar expects a total of 90,000 petitions this year, which would surpass the records of 71,230 in 2019 and 41,329 in 2020.

But the Mexican government, which promises to support “orderly, safe and regular” migration, has only resolved 6,710 cases so far this year, with a 74% acceptance rate, even though the law sets a maximum of 90 days for resolutions.

“Although there are the times that Comar says, many times they can vary. The predetermined time that we have here with other cases is from six months to one year, in pre-covid times it was that, and already with covid times it takes longer,” explains Eréndira Barco González, coordinator of the comprehensive care center at Casa Mambré.

For this reason, the Scalabrinian organization: Mission for Migrants and Refugees (SMR), run by Casa Mambré, receives the “most vulnerable”: those who have suffered violence in transit through Mexico asylum seekers and adolescents.

In its seven years of existence, the group has noticed changes in migration patterns, increased pressure from the United States, and a deployment of Mexican forces to prevent migrants from leaving the southern border.

“Yes, there is a barrier where they say the policy is that they don’t go up or they don’t start arriving in other states. And that is why all the Police, National Guard, and Migration have many checkpoints, we do believe that the policies are more focused on preventing people from moving”, warns Barco Gonzalez.

DIVERSITY OF REALITIES

Among those waiting for a new opportunity at Casa Mambré is Katszuri, a young trans woman from Guatemala who began her process four months ago in Mexico City after being denied a humanitarian visa because of her gender identity.

“I was going to ask for refuge in Chiapas, but unfortunately, the organizations that are there to give one refuge did not want to support me, in part I understood because of the problem of so many demands from us migrants,” she says.

Katszuri left Guatemala because of violence and discrimination. She did not finish high school because her own family rejected her at the age of 11.

When she arrived in Tapachula, Mexico’s main border with Central America, a cab driver offered her support in exchange for prostitution.

“I told him it was okay because I had nowhere to stay and all the organizations had closed their doors to me, including the human rights organization (of the State), the UN, all of that, they closed their doors to me,” she says.

But the young woman fled the place with the impetus to seek a better life in Mexico. “I am currently a hairdresser, I am 24 years old, but my dream is also to study nursing, so I want to study at a university, get my diploma, I want to stay and work here, to excel,” she says.

Most applicants seek to integrate into the northern states, where there are opportunities for jobs in industry and to keep the American dream alive, adds Barco González, from Casa Mambré.

“They never take away the dream of coming to the United States, in the end, they have made up their mind that they have to stay in Mexico for different situations, but the truth is that you will never take away the idea of following their dream,” he concludes.