Mexico, third in the world in receiving refugee applications

Mexico entered the list of the three countries in the world, after the United States and Germany, to receive the highest number of refugee applications, according to estimates by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

The year that is about to end is a record for Mexico since, until the month of November, 123,125 refugee applications have been accumulated, 30% higher than the same period in 2020.

The main nationalities of the refugee applicants, in descending order, are: Haitians, Hondurans, Cubans, Salvadorans, Venezuelans, Guatemalans and Nicaraguans, mainly.

Citizens from three dictatorships are present on the list of nationalities: Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua; a failed state: Haiti; and the three Central American countries whose governments are either linked to drug trafficking (Honduras), have corruption problems (Guatemala) or are becoming autocracies (El Salvador).

Giovanni Lepri, UNHCR representative in Mexico, presented data on a survey conducted in Tapachula, Monterrey and Mexico City during October and November of this year. It specified that 63% of Haitians who have arrived in Mexico left their country between 2016 and 2018, many of them come from Colombia, mainly. The decision to leave Haiti is multifactorial: generalized violence and insecurity (80%), access to food (55%), health (53%) and lack of employment (52%).

The four reasons why they left the last country of residence are: labor exploitation (39%), xenophobia (38%), lack of job opportunities (39%) and delay in immigration procedures (29%).

Mexico City, Monterrey and Tijuana are the preferred destinations for the families interviewed in Tapachula.

Acnur has developed agreements with several Mexican companies to create job opportunities. In Monterrey, for example, the Femsa group has hired Haitians and it is normal to see them work in Oxxo stores. The same occurs with the Nissan company at its Aguascalientes plant.

Tapachula, critical point

In this Chiapas city, between 800 and 1,000 asylum applications are presented daily. The capacity of the Mexican Commission for Refugee Aid (Comar) to process applications has been overwhelmed.

Giovanni Lepri commented that, although it is true that the Comar’s budget has not had an impact on the austerity policy of the government of President López Obrador, it has not increased either, but the number of refugee applications has.

Lepri recognized the AMLO government for providing figures for Mexican displaced persons within the territory, a situation that had not occurred in previous six-year terms. Between January and October of this year, 36,272 Mexicans have left their home to move to another state. The figure is three times higher than the same period in 2020.

The most common displacement factor is violence from organized crime groups. The states with the highest number of displaced persons are: Chiapas, Chihuahua, Guerrero, Michoacán, Oaxaca, Quintana Roo, Sinaloa, Tamaulipas and Sonora.

politica@eleconomista.mx