Mexico City, Apr 24 (EFE).- The Government of Mexico City, the National Institute of Migration (INM) and the Mexican Commission for Aid to Refugees (Comar) have reacted to the sudden migratory flow unleashed in the capital with a shelter and the expediting of thousands of humanitarian procedures, although migrants perceive persistent challenges.
After hundreds of migrants set up a provisional camp in the central Giordano Bruno square, close to the Comar offices, the capital’s government opened a shelter in the Tláhuac forest, in the south of the city, where nearly 800 people spend the night. .
Many of those who occupy the compound, an open field with tents, hundreds of tents and small buildings with bedrooms and bathrooms, were moved from the plaza located in the Juárez neighborhood.
“The decision was based on the need to provide them with a space worthy of accommodation. They were on the street, it was rainy days, there were health problems,” Jorge García, director of Migrants at the Ministry of Inclusion and Social Welfare (Sibiso) of Mexico City, explained to EFE.
BETWEEN HOPE AND IMPATIENCE
The facts illustrate the record requests for asylum in Mexico, which received 37,606 applications in the first quarter of 2023, 29.2% more than the first three months of 2022.
Although hundreds have found a place to sleep, eat and wash for a few days at the government shelter, others come daily hoping to start their refugee application or obtain a temporary regularization document to continue their journey to the United States.
According to Sibiso, the immigration authorities have attended 7,789 people since March 29.
Migrants seeking to obtain these documents flock to the modules installed by the INM and Comar, which, although they have relieved a system that accumulates hundreds of thousands of pending applications, are still insufficient.
Sandy Alonso, a 37-year-old Cuban, arrived in Tláhuac three days ago, but he still has not accessed the documents that allow him to safely transit to the US border.
“I want to try to get an appointment with the Comar to see if I can continue to the United States, so as not to go to the mess (worried). Although I have not yet been able to start the procedures, when I get up it is already full of people, ”he explained to EFE.
While waiting for the physical queues to clear up, Alonso makes another virtual one: the one for the “CBP One” application, with which, when it does not fail, appointments with the US immigration authorities are obtained.
“I will stay until they give me permission, but if the appointment with the United States arrives before I leave. I will arrive as I can, ”she recounted.
For Job Bazelais, a 35-year-old Haitian, staying in Mexico is not an option either: he was robbed before reaching the capital, his passport was stolen, and his travel companion, a young African, was kidnapped.
“When I have the necessary documents, I will go to the northern border. I am trying to get an appointment with CBP One, but it is very crowded, ”she indicated.
CONTROVERSIAL DECISION
Although the migrants claim to receive care and Sibiso boasts that no migrant stays overnight at the Giordano Bruno, the opening of the shelter was accompanied by controversy, as civil organizations denounced that it is a cosmetic and improvised measure.
“It seems that the purpose is only to remove people from the plaza, when the Tláhuac shelter has not designed care models,” Mario Monroy, the local integration coordinator of the Cafemin shelter, warned EFE.
The Sibiso official rejected these criticisms, assuring that the Mexican capital is a place prepared for the reception of migrants, since it has legal instruments to allocate personnel, budget and resources for the cause.
Although the shelter is designed for migrants to spend a few days, the capital’s government said that it could double its capacity to 1,600 people and that it has no intention of closing it after the emergency.
“It is a permanent temporary shelter. There are no plans to close it,” Garcia said.
Monroy warned that the city is facing unprecedented saturation and about 65,000 more migrants are expected to arrive in the first half of May.
Lying on one of the hundreds of mattresses arranged under a tent, Víctor Esting and his nine-month-old son Ismael patiently await their turn to request shelter.
He wants to find in Mexico the stability and security that he did not find in his native Haiti, where he was almost assassinated.
“They told me that the procedures here are faster than in the Comar offices. I want to stay in Mexico for the moment, I don’t have money and I need to work, ”she related.
