Refugee applications in Mexico shot up more than 5,000%

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Mexico City. One out of every two migrants who recently sought refuge in Mexico is fleeing the widespread violence in their country; The majority, 47 percent, comes from Honduras, and more than half of the procedures were resolved in a period greater than the month and a half established in the law, there are even cases that have lasted almost two years.

This is revealed in a report prepared by El Colegio de la Frontera Norte (Colef) in which it collected the profiles, dynamics and perspectives on the situation of asylum seekers, refugees and beneficiaries of complementary protection in our country. The investigation will be presented this Friday.

The report indicates that, in six years, Mexico had a growth of 5 thousand 348 percent in these requests, going from 1,296 in 2013 to 70 thousand 609 in 2019.

This situation, El Colef warns, involves people from Central America and the Caribbean, South America, Africa and Asia; and it has put the response capacity of the Mexican State, civil organizations and international organizations to the test.

The research was carried out in 11 cities of the country between September 2019 and January 2020. 1,768 surveys and 153 in-depth interviews were applied for “the first long-range quantitative study specialized in refugees and asylum seekers in Mexico”.

The results show that the main nations of birth of the applicants are Honduras (47 percent), Venezuela (17 percent), El Salvador (14), Cuba (11), Guatemala (6), Nicaragua (4) and Haiti ( two).

A quarter of these migrants entered Mexico during or before 2018, 40 percent in the first half of 2019 and 35 percent in the second half of that year. Four out of ten are women and 55 percent of the total are between 25 and 39 years of age. The vast majority come with their children, 41 percent in a range of six to 12 years and 39 percent from zero to five.

Venezuelans and Cubans have higher levels of schooling (14.2 and 13 years, respectively) and the lowest levels are found in Guatemalans and Salvadorans (7.8 years of schooling) and Hondurans (7.3 years).

The data show that 39.5 percent of those with refugee status have a formal job and that participation drops to 12.7 percent among those who are applicants. Only 23.6 percent of those who have a job access public health services (IMSS, Issste, among others).

Only 3.3 percent of those surveyed work as a professional, despite the fact that 21.4 percent have university studies. “This suggests an imperfect transfer of human capital from this population as they enter the Mexican labor market,” emphasizes the report.

The monthly income of this population is around 6 thousand 367.9 pesos, but it varies according to their condition: those who are already refugees earn an average of 7 thousand 62.6 pesos, while applicants receive 5 thousand 923.3 pesos per month.

Source: jornada.com.mx

Mexico Daily Post