Despite the closure of Roxham Road and selective immigration policies in the United States, nothing seems to dampen the hope of a better life for thousands of people from Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa and from Asia, who took the northern route. The duty went to meet them at two nerve points of this great crossing, where vulnerability and determination coexist, where life and death intersect. Last text in a series of four.
Upon entering the Hospitalidad y solidaridad shelter, it is impossible not to be caught by the much too loud salsa music, which practically makes the concrete walls of this new accommodation for migrants built in Tapachula, a border town in southern Mexico, shake. . But it’s nothing to wake up little Nikita, barely two months old, who sleeps peacefully in the warmth of her mother’s arms, sitting not far away. “She’s got a bit of the flu, but she’s doing well,” says Lanèse Pharisien, looking serene despite the fatigue of a very recent birth.
At the beginning of September, this 24-year-old Haitian woman made the difficult decision to leave her country, leaving her partner and her two-year-old son behind to head north. “At home, there are bandits who shoot people,” she said straight away. There is no work, no hospital. And I lost my mother three years ago. I couldn’t stay there any longer. »
It was more than eight months pregnant — and “by the grace of God” — that she arrived in Nicaragua with a friend on one of the many flights that left Port-au-Prince every day at that time. Some 30,000 Haitians took advantage of this migratory safe passage offered in particular to residents of Cuba and Haiti — courtesy of the controversial regime of Daniel Ortega — before the United States demanded, at the end of October, that these flights are suspended.
But recently, Lanese Pharisien’s plans have changed. “I would like to stay here,” she says, admitting to feeling good in the country where her daughter was born.
Mexico, new country of asylum
Despite its many challenges, Mexico is no longer just a transit country, but is newly a destination for many migrants who decide not to continue to the United States or Canada. With more than 100,000 files per year, this country of 125 million inhabitants is even the third in the world for its number of asylum seekers. “Mexico has clearly become a land of asylum,” he told Duty Giovanni Lepri, the representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Mexico.
With 137,000 applications received as of November 30, the country has just broken the 2021 record, where 128,000 people requested refuge, according to the Mexican Refugee Assistance Commission (COMAR). For comparison, as of October 31, Canada had received nearly 60,000 asylum applications.
“For Mexico, it’s a very rapid change,” says Mr. Lepri. Before, we were talking about 3000, 4000, maybe 5000 requests per year. » At the top of the list, Haitians are those who request asylum the most, followed by Hondurans and Cubans.
“Faced with increasing protection needs and greater capacity for treatment, inclusion and integration, Mexico is positioning itself as a country that could be an interesting alternative solution [aux migrants] “, he emphasizes.
He nevertheless recognizes the paradoxical nature of the situation. Because although Mexico, 15e world economy, has become a land of welcome, it is also a country which is seeing a large number of its inhabitants flee, in particular due to the violence of criminal groups. For example, currently, Mexicans make up the largest group of asylum seekers in Canada.
A long and difficult wait
40 km from the border with Guatemala, where the Suchiate River can be crossed in a few minutes on makeshift rafts, the town of Tapachula is the busiest entry point into Mexico. More than half of the people who have applied for asylum so far in 2023 have done so from one of the offices in this border town of 350,000.
Every day of the week, the COMAR offices in Tapachula are stormed by migrants. “From the border, people will line up directly in front of COMAR,” explains Karen Pérez Martinez, who heads the local office of the Jesuit Refugee Service. Some people waited in line for two weeks! »
On September 18, 7,000 people gathered in front of the COMAR offices. A record number which, in the face of popular discontent, forced their transfer to the Ecological Park.
Waiting in the humid heat and sometimes in torrential rain, migrants have no other option than to shelter under pieces of cardboard to avoid losing their place. “The children are hot, we saw a lot of dehydration… Imagine, there are some who don’t even want to leave the line to go to the toilet,” said M.me Pérez Martinez. We are no longer just faced with long procedures [administratives], but facing a public health problem. »
This wait, combined with the difficulty of obtaining accurate information, causes many to become discouraged. And many give up on the idea of seeking asylum.
Better support Mexico
Others, who have already requested it, are discouraged by the slowness of the process. In the courtyard of the Hospitalidad y Solidaridad shelter, Marvin David Matute says he has been waiting for almost four months for news of the request made for his wife and their three daughters. “It’s too long,” lamented this Honduran, abandoning the card game he had just started. Right now, I don’t have any documents that would allow me to settle somewhere in Mexico with my family. »
A life on hold complicated by a difficult job search. “Even if we go to the city center on our knees to ask for work, we will be told that they prefer to hire Mexicans,” he sighs.
The Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees has long advocated that the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador offer other options to migrants who do not necessarily wish to seek asylum. “It could be work or study visas. There are work visas available, but they require a contract with an employer, it’s quite complicated,” says Pierre-Marc René, communications officer at the sub-regional office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Women. refugees in Chiapas. With nearly two million vacant positions, labor needs are significant.
Despite all the efforts made by Mexico, Giovanni Lepri believes that the country still needs support. The High Commission, he recalls, finances two thirds of COMAR. “If countries like Canada or the United States, which allow us this financing, stopped sending us funds, COMAR would collapse. » The other problem, he notes, is the low absorption capacity of a region like Chiapas, of which Tapachula is the capital, which nevertheless receives the largest flows of migrants. “It makes a lot of migrants discouraged,” he admits. Otherwise, those who pass through the process are channeled into a functioning integration system. »
This is a little hope for Lanèse Pharisien, who has, for the moment, only good words for his host country. “I like Mexico,” she said simply, before attempting a better explanation: “I’m happy here, I don’t know… It looks like there won’t be any bandits. »
This report was made possible thanks to the support of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.