Venezuelans ask for asylum on the southern border of Mexico to avoid deportation

Hundreds of Venezuelan migrants, stranded on the southern border of Mexico, have come in recent days to the refugee aid office in the Mexican city of Tapachula, bordering Guatemala, to request refuge, seek a legal stay in the country, and thus avoid being deported.

This Monday, this request has been joined by migrants from the Dominican Republic, Bangladesh, Haiti and some Jewish migrants, and from Central American countries that have saturated that office that depends on the Ministry of the Interior (Interior) and where asylum requests are processed in Tapachula.

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The main request of the migrants stranded in Tapachula is that the authorities of the Mexican Commission for Aid to Refugees (Comar) can expedite the document that allows them to go to the National Institute of Migration (INM) of Mexico “to obtain their visa for reasons humanitarian”.

On this day, the South American migrants, a majority from Venezuela, caused disorder in the lines and did not organize themselves, which caused the Mexican authorities to stop serving migrants of other nationalities.

However, seeing so many family groups, they allowed people with children to enter and they were granted a kind of prior appointment for the month of May.

Subsequently, the authorities closed the main access gate, where migrants enter, due to lack of organization, which caused protests from foreigners, who stood behind the door to demand attention to their procedure after two days. waiting to complete this process.

A migrant from Venezuela, María Alejandra Díaz Pineda, explained that for almost three days she has been sick with fever, diarrhea and vomiting and asked for help to continue moving forward.

“We are requesting asylum to establish ourselves in Mexico for the necessary time, they have told us that they will attend to us for next year, we hope that it will be so,” he told EFE.

His compatriot, Alexander Jesús Alfonso Castillo, who left the Comar office, said that the procedure he completed is to be able to have a legal stay in Mexico and thus obtain a visa.

“We do not want to be in Mexico, my family is in the United States, I want to go there to help my parents, siblings and have a better life.”

The authorities began with the registration of hundreds of people, giving priority to those traveling in families to prevent them from being formed under inclement weather.

Due to the disorder this Monday, the Tapachula authorities sent municipal police vehicles to maintain order.

One of the Comar officials, Andrés Mortero, in charge of assigning appointments in the office, who tried to put order, indicated that they have served more than 1,800 people every day and there had been no such disorganization.

Some migrants who were not served will wait for their process on Wednesday because Comar attends to these requests Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

In the first three quarters of the year, Mexico received 86,621 refugee applications at the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (Comar), of which 8,665, about 10%, are from Venezuelan citizens.

The migration crisis on the southern and northern borders of Mexico is the result of the agreement reached by the governments of Mexico and the United States two weeks ago, by virtue of which the United States will offer 24,000 visas for Venezuelans and will return to Mexican territory all those who cross illegally. irregular.

The US announcement comes amid an increase in the arrival of Venezuelans at the border with Mexico. Between October 2021 and August of this year, more than 150,000 Venezuelans have been arrested on the US southern border, compared to 50,499 in the same period last year.

Source: Elcomercio

Ronald Payne

I, Ronald Payne, am a journalist and author who dedicated his life to telling the stories that need to be said. I have over 7 years of experience as a reporter and editor, covering everything from politics to business to crime.