The Mexican Government’s Commission for Refugee Assistance (Comar) revealed to EFE on Wednesday that it will open in September the Multi-Service Center in Tapachula, the main city on Mexico’s southern border, to deal with the migratory flow, which has almost tripled so far this year.
Andrés Ramírez Silva, coordinator of Comar, said in an interview 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 Comar toured the facilities of the center, which is 60% complete, so he hopes that by November or December at least one stage will be completed.
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.
Migration continues to flow
The head of Comar said that they received 46,920 asylum requests from January to July, a year-on-year drop of almost 47%.
But irregular migration through Mexico rose 193 percent year-on-year in the first half of the year to more than 712,000, according to the government’s Migration Policy Unit.
Asked about those people who abandon their procedures to leave in caravans, he asked “to understand that Mexico is a country that shares a 3,200-kilometer border with the most powerful country in the world.”
“So 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,” Ramírez Silva said.
Requests for asylum
Regarding the handling of asylum applications and the delay of those who are left without a response, he said that “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.”
The official 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.
Mexico City / EFE
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2024-08-24 06:30:09
