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Central America & Mexico Migration Crisis - Emergency Appeal No. MDR43008 - Regional Operational Strategy

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Panamá
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IFRC
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REGIONAL OPERATIONAL STRATEGY requirement: 2.5 million CHF
IFRC Secretariat funding requirement: 18 million CHF
Federation-wide funding requirement: 28 million CHF

SITUATION ANALYSIS

The Americas region is home to complex and mixed migration, which takes place both within and beyond the region. Many migrants , refugees, and returnees move through irregular pathways driven by persecution, violence, disasters or a desire for better opportunities. Central America has become, in recent years, one of the busiest transit routes to the United States.

Unlike in the 1990s, when most migrants were of Central American nationalities, and there was evidence of a growing south-north migration, today migrants come from multiple regions and continents. Many are from very different nationalities, and often use Panama as the first point of passage to continue to the United States and Mexico. The mixed flows trigger multiple groups and profiles of migrants travelling in Central America by different routes and at various stages of the journey in the same region. For example, migrants from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua, which are countries of both origin and return, are vulnerable since, among other things, they have often been displaced due to violence, poverty, lack of employment or other threats such as disasters.

Since the beginning of 2022 there has been a significant increase in the number of refugees, migrants and returnees in transit by land northward through Central America and Mexico, compared to previous years. Just in the Northern Triangle of Central America – made up of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador – from January to May 2022, 89,186 people have returned, an increase of 98.5 per cent compared to the same months in 2021.

Nicaragua also has migrant populations in transit and leaving to nearby countries or travelling to Mexico and the United States, in addition to all the people in transit coming from other continents or other regions of America, as with Venezuelans and Cubans transiting the Darien border and then through the Northern Triangle.

In 2021, Mexico received over 130,000 asylum requests, the third-highest number of any country in the world, with approximately 90,000 of these filed in Tapachula, on the border with Guatemala. In the first four months of 2022, the Mexican Commission for Refugee Aid (COMAR) received 40,026 asylum applications, predominately from nationals of Honduras, Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela and Nicaragua , bolstering the finding that these countries are becoming countries of transit, departure and return.

Red Cross National Societies in the Americas are committed to addressing the humanitarian assistance and protection needs of migrants, refugees and returnees, irrespective of their status, and at key stages of their migration journeys. This ongoing commitment is expressed in a new regional Americas-route-based programme entitled “Humanitarian Assistance and Protection for People on the Move”. This programme is multi-year and multi-country and includes the humanitarian activities of 22 National Societies in the region. This Emergency Appeal has been launched to complement the regional response by enabling additional support to National Societies to address the massive increase in migrants, returnees, and refugees on the move and the increase in critical assistance and protection needs.

Severity of humanitarian conditions

Government political contexts and migration policies of the region are influencing the flows and the movement of migrants. In November 2021, the Nicaraguan government announced that it was lifting visa requirements for Cubans, one of the few countries in the region to do so. This has since generated a massive outflow from Cuba to Nicaragua. On 20 March 2020, at the outset of the COVID-19 public health emergency, the government of the United States previewed a measure to reduce uncontrolled crossborder movement, which limited the entry of migrants. The Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles resulted in the agreement of a road map in which 20 countries in the Americas, including the United States, Argentina, Barbados, Belize, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay, joined a declaration with concrete commitments to contain the migration crisis in the region. The United States promised to increase its quota of refugees from the Americas to 20,000 by 2023 and 2024, with priority for Haitians, in addition to continuing to accept temporary non-agricultural workers from Central America. In June 2022, Mexican authorities also issued thousands of temporary documents and transit permits for migrants who left the south of the country. However, hundreds of people were still in various towns waiting to receive money from relatives or resting before continuing north. More than 5,000 families demanded protection and precautionary measures given the delays and requirements of carrying out immigration procedures and of being able to advance to the northern border with the United States.

In addition to the complexity of transiting difficult routes, migrants are exposed to assault, physical violence, sexual violence and other protection risks, and cases of sexual violence have gone unprosecuted. From January to June 2022, more than 170 cases of unaccompanied and separated children have been identified in the Darien gap as well, between Colombia and Panama. According to the IOM's Missing Migrants Project , the roughly 4,000 deaths at the Mexico-US border are nearly five times as many as the combined death tolls of all other routes recorded. The leading cause of death is drowning, at 1,750, after accidental deaths, vehicle accidents, sickness/lack of access to adequate healthcare, violence and lack of shelter and food.

Conditions during migration also pose severe risks to the physical and mental health of migrants.
Common under these conditions is exposure to hazards or risks, including adverse weather and, risks of traumatic pathology, diseases transmitted by vectors and infectious diseases common when there is no safe water, adequate sanitation and unhealthy living conditions. There is a clear risk of psychological trauma from stress, anxiety and uncertainty for both migrant populations and host communities too.

Central America and Mexico are prone to climate-related hazards and disasters, and emergencies are likely to exacerbate the current migrant situation. In the Eastern Pacific the hurricane season officially began on 15 May, and in the Atlantic, on June 1. Initial forecasts for the 2022 season show a likely 14 to 21 named storms (winds of 39 mph or higher), of which 6 to 10 could become hurricanes (winds of 74 mph or higher), including 3 to 6 major hurricanes (Category 3, 4 or 5; with winds of 111 mph or higher). Thus far there has been no significant event, but the season's peak is between mid-August and mid-October.

Structural problems and COVID-19 have accentuated the socioeconomic effects including high levels of inequality, informal labour, lack of social protections, poverty and vulnerability. Latin America and the Caribbean are characterised by weak health and social protection systems with expanding marginalised urban settlements that lack access to essential services. In 2020, inequality contributed to the highest rise in hunger in Latin America and the Caribbean among different regions of the world, with more than 30 per cent affected on average. The increase in severe food insecurity represented a setback of at least a decade, while it is estimated that in the first year of the Covid pandemic, 60 million people suffered from hunger in the region, almost 14 million more than in 2019. Some countries have now seen protests over the economic situation, and if the situation continues to deteriorate, more protests can be expected.