- Mexican authorities recalled that similar places already exist in Tijuana and Monterrey | Photo: EFE/Juan Manuel Blanco
The Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (Comar) of the government reported on Wednesday, August 21, that it will inaugurate in September the Tapachula Multi-Service Center aimed at migrants. This is the main city on Mexico’s southern border, to handle the migratory flow, which has almost tripled so far in 2024.
Andrés Ramírez Silva, coordinator of the Comar, said in an interview with the EFE news agency that the symbolic inauguration will be attended by Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena, the Secretary of the Interior, Luisa María Alcalde, and other high-ranking officials for a meeting of the coordination of attention to migrants.
The head of the Eat He toured the facilities of the centre, which is 60% complete. For this reason, it is expected that at least one stage will be completed by November or December.
The official said that “it will be very important” to open this center on the southern border, since there are already similar places in Tijuana and Monterrey, the largest cities in northern Mexico, where the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and civil organizations also collaborate.
“Now in Tapachula it will be the third with a very important multipurpose model and, in addition, this center allows for the attention in a single space to various categories of human mobility, although mainly those seeking international protection, which are the ones that basically come to Comar,” he described.
The flow of migrants on the border between Mexico and the United States
The head of Comar said that they received 46,920 asylum requests between January and July 2024. This figure represents a year-on-year drop of almost 47%.
However, migration entering through irregular channels through Mexico rose 193% year-on-year in the first half of 2024 to exceed 712,000 people, according to the Mexican government’s Migration Policy Unit.
“Mexico is a country that shares a 3,200-kilometer border with the most powerful country in the world,” he said of those people who abandon their paperwork to leave in caravans.
In this regard, Ramírez Silva added that Mexico is not the destination where most migrants settle.
“It is not a coincidence or a strange thing that many of the people who come to our country use it as a transit route to the United States,” he said.
Ramírez Silva referred to the process for handling asylum applications and the backlog of those who are left without a response.
“We must understand that these are mixed flows; not all people who arrive in Mexico necessarily seek international protection, nor do those who seek international protection want it in Mexico,” he explained.
Mexico seeks to increase the use of CBP One
Ramírez Silva said they are seeking to allow migrants to use the CBP One application, which is used to make an appointment with U.S. authorities, without having to reach the border between Mexico and the United States.
The CBP One app allows migrants arriving at the southern border to present themselves at a port of entry to request asylum in the United States.
In June 2024, the Joe Biden administration ruled out increasing the number of daily appointments available on this app. CBP One is currently offering 1,450 appointments per day through this app for the entire southern border.
Following the entry into force of a series of asylum restrictions for those who cross the border illegally, the government has assured that the CBP One application is now the only tool available to migrants in transit or already on the Mexican side of the border to request asylum in the country.
With information from EFE
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2024-08-23 06:08:14