Luis Lozano
Mexico City, May 14 (EFE).- At the same rate that Haitian migrants arrive in Mexico, their problems in the country increase: only 5% of their asylum applications are resolved and 90%, according to a study by the NGO International Rescue Committee (IRC), does not have access to basic needs such as reliable information, food or safe housing.
Of the 37,606 asylum requests received by the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (Comar) during the first quarter of the year, 13,631 (36.25%) were from Haitians, the nationality that accumulates the most applications.
“This year, according to official figures, only 5% of Haitian asylum applications have been recognized. The recognition rate is much lower than in other nationalities ”, she explained in an interview with EFE Lisa McMunn, deputy director of IRC programs in Mexico.
Only 681 cases have been positively resolved.
While many go through the procedures to settle in Mexico and find the job and security they lost in their country, others are looking for a document that gives them the security that they will be able to continue traveling to the United States without the risk of being deported.
Noemí Raya, a social worker at the Cafemin migrant shelter in Mexico City, attributed the tiny figure, in part, to the reasons they allege for requesting asylum.
“It may be due to the situations in which Haitians leave their country, which are often socioeconomic issues and not threats or risks, Raya said.
Haiti is, according to the World Bank, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, where food insecurity affects 4.9 million of the 11 million people who inhabit the Haitian half of the island of Hispaniola.
“We have also seen cases due to the language situation. When they arrive at the interviews with the Comar, they are not clear about what they were being told and the resolution is complicated,” added the Cafemin worker, where about 80% of the 200 migrants they welcomed this week were from Haiti.
Language is precisely one of the main barriers that Haitians encounter on their way through Mexico, and which leads to the rest of the problems: unlike the majority of migrants who travel through the country, they usually speak Portuguese, French or Creole.
Thus, 73% of the 450 Haitian migrants in Mexico consulted by IRC stated that they did not have access to information in their language, which affected them when it came to obtaining accommodation, food or immigration permits.
“Misinformation increases vulnerability,” McMunn said.
On their way through Mexico, all migrants face recurring human rights violations, but Haitians have an added problem: their black skin.
“They suffer a lot from the issue of racism. Haitians are identified more quickly and are victims of situations that violate them,” lamented Raya.
“HE WHO DOESN’T SPEAK KNOWS NOTHING”
Nicolás Clauzius, a 43-year-old carpenter, left Haiti due to lack of work and security. He tried his luck in Chile for six years, a country, along with Brazil, to which many Haitians migrated after the 2010 earthquake that struck the island.
There he learned the Spanish that he has struggled to speak during the week he has been in Mexico. “I speak a little, but the one who does not speak it does not know anything, and he has no information,” he lamented.
Nicolás refers to people like Kesnick Valeus, who despite not speaking a word of Spanish, looks for ways to make himself understood.
“I want to stay in Mexico to work. I have requested asylum, I have already done the interview and I am waiting,” Kesnick said in Portuguese.
When he gets stuck in the conversation, he calls his compatriot Musso Gabriel and asks for help. “He says that he wants to learn Spanish”, he translated it.
A STORY OF HOPE
Although he acts as a spontaneous interpreter, Musso is really Cafemin’s cook. It arrived in September 2021, in what is known as the first Haitian exodus to Mexico, a phenomenon that is far from coming to an end.
“I have colleagues who tell me to help them for ten minutes with Spanish and I act as a translator,” he stressed.
After two years in the country, he has obtained a permanent residence permit: “I stayed here and I cook for all the immigrants,” he explained while watching a pot out of the corner of his eye.
Already established, now he tries to bring his four children who, adding the four years he spent in Brazil, he has not seen for six.
His, despite everything, is a story of hope in the midst of a sea of rejections, deficiencies and violations of rights.
Last Friday was Musso’s 39th birthday and he entertained his fellow migrants with one of his favorite dishes: fried plantain, chicken and rice with beans.
