The number of undocumented migrants from Central America and Haiti who are endeavouring to travel through Mexico’s southern border and head northwards to the US has surged massively this year. In what looks like a potential change of policy, Mexico may now begin offering some of them visas to stay.
Until recently, illegal immigrants entering Mexico in large pedestrian ‘caravans’ had fairly limited options. They could be forcibly sent back across the border by the Mexican national guard (GN); a minority would get as far as the US from where some of them could also be deported; some might stay illegally in Mexico; and some might be able to get residence papers in Mexico, for example by applying for refugee status.
In an unusual deal, thousands of mainly Haitian migrants forming part of a caravan in southern Mexico that recently left Tapachula heading north have been offered visas by the Instituto Nacional de Migración (INM) on condition that they stop their march and agree instead to be dispersed and settled in nine or 10 Mexican states.
Officials told Reuters news agency off the record that, in return, migrant leaders had been asked to vouch they would not assemble any further caravans in future. The ‘dispersion states’ included Puebla, Edomex, Hidalgo, Querétaro, Colima, Jalisco, and Guerrero. Advocacy groups say that getting migrants out of Tapachula, near the southern border, which is severely overcrowded, is a positive development.
What is evident is that the number of migrants continues to surge. According to the Mexican government, approximately 190,000 undocumented migrants entered Mexico in the first nine months of this year, which is roughly three times 2020 arrivals, when the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic limited mobility. Official data also shows that 74,300 were deported during that nine-month period.
Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), visited Mexico on 22 November and signed an agreement to train and strengthen Mexico’s council for aid to refugees, the Comisión Mexicana de Ayuda a Refugiados (Comar). Comar said that also in the first nine months of this year it had received 116,500 requests for asylum in Mexico. It is expected the full-year number will rise to 130,000, of which some 52,000 would be from Haitians.
Government officials said most asylum applications were likely to be turned down because applicants were fleeing difficult economic conditions, rather than being the victims of political persecution. Grandi said the obligation was to protect all migrants and develop alternatives that would help relieve the pressure on the asylum system.
Migrants
It is not clear at this stage whether the visa deal is a “one off” or whether it is the beginning of a new coordinated strategy to limit the number of migrants in transit through to the US.