Mexico Braces for Fresh Flood of Central American Asylum Seekers Gabriel Stargardter - Thomson Reuters Foundation
go to original December 16, 2016

Central Americans fleeing serious threats face formidable obstacles in applying for asylum in Mexico. (HumanRightsWatch)

Mexico expects a sharp increase in people seeking asylum from Central America next year, fleeing gang warfare and poverty in their home countries, a senior official said on Thursday.

There has been a steady surge of Central Americans applying for asylum in Mexico since 2015. Cinthia Perez, a director of Mexico's refugee agency COMAR, said in an interview that she is receiving about 9 percent more applications each month.

There were 3,424 asylum applications in 2015, and she predicts ending 2016 with around 8,000. That figure could well rise to 22,501 by the end of 2017 if the trend of 9 percent more applications each month continues.

"Everything seems to indicate that the number of applicants will keep rising," Perez said, adding that violence and a widespread regional drought that had forced the rural poor into cities were the main causes driving asylum applications.

She said 72 percent of applications have been accepted in 2016, up from just under 40 percent in 2013.

Perez said there was evidence that more of those people granted asylum were choosing to stay in Mexico, but she acknowledged that some might use their refugee status to travel unimpeded up to the United States border.

Read the rest at Thomson Reuters Foundation

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