Venezuela among countries leading asylum requests in Mexico

From 2019 to June 2024, Honduras leads the list of migrants who requested refugee status with 172,596 people, the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (Comar) reported on Wednesday.

The institution, which is part of the Mexican government’s Ministry of the Interior, said that Honduras is followed by Haiti with 128,328 requests; Cuba with 68,188; Venezuela with 39,230; and El Salvador with 36,436.

“During the current 2019 Administration, until the end of June 2024, the first 5 nationalities requesting refugee status in Mexico are Honduras, Haiti, Cuba, Venezuela and El Salvador,” said the head of Comar, Andrés Ramírez Silva, in a message on social media.

The current administration of the country, headed by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, began on December 1, 2018 and will end on September 30, although for administrative purposes the count begins precisely with the year 2019.

Application

Meanwhile, Comar said that from January to June 2024, 41,427 people have applied for refugee status, a decrease of 45.5% compared to the same period in 2023, when 76,130 requests were registered, while in the first half of 2022, 58,660 cases were recorded.

In total figures per year, Comar reported 140,831 requests in 2023; 119,083 in 2022 and the 129,329 cases registered in 2021, while in the three previous years it reached 40,733 in 2020; 70,120 in 2019 and 29,410 in 2018.

According to data from Customs and Border Protection (CBP), some 324,000 citizens from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador arrived at the southern border of the United States in 2023, a 29% reduction compared to 2021.

Migration in Mexico has been in place since October 2018, when caravans with thousands of migrants, mostly Central Americans, began to enter with the aim of crossing the country to reach the United States. The arrival of migrants has continued in recent years despite the pandemic and the restrictions imposed by countries in the region.

Mexico City / EFE