“I’m shocked. We are crushed”
Trying to settle in America, Ukrainian refugees were left in limbo in Mexico following the US changed the rules for entering the country.
Thousands of Ukrainian refugees were able to cross Mexico into the United States in recent weeks, but the rules changed last weekend, and now many people are facing even more despair that has accompanied their lives since the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine.
According to the Sky News channel, American territory is visible from the site of the Benito Juarez Sports Center in Tijuana. An imposing rusty-brown border fence separates Mexico from the United States. It was the lure of one of the busiest border crossings in the world that attracted thousands of Ukrainians to Tijuana. The possibility of flying to Mexico without a visa has become one of the most popular routes for Ukrainian refugees. But following thousands of people were allowed into the United States in recent weeks, the rules changed over the weekend. Ukrainians must now apply through the official US asylum program.
This has left an unknown number of Ukrainian refugees in limbo in Mexico, with hundreds of miles more to travel, uncertainty regarding whether they will be accepted, and more desperation that has marked their lives for weeks, reports Sky News. Even a temporary shelter in the sports center. Benito Juarez, where regarding a hundred refugees from Ukraine remain, is closed forever this weekend.
Ukrainian refugees came together for an announcement this week. Hope slipped from their faces when they were told that there was no way to get to America from here. “I am in a state of shock. We are crushed,” says Oksana, a Ukrainian, following hearing the news. Together with their seven-year-old twin daughters, they fled Ukraine, leaving their husband and son Oksana there, and hoped to get to the United States through Tijuana.
“Many people have the same problem as we do, but we just don’t know what we will do next,” Oksana added.
For another Ukrainian refugee, Alina, Mexico became the fifth country in which she settled for a while following leaving Ukraine a month ago. “You never know what to expect in every new place,” she says.