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Mexico: Central America & Mexico Migration Crisis - Emergency Appeal No. MDR43008 - Operation update #1

Pays
Mexique
+ 11
Sources
IFRC
Date de publication
Origine
Voir l'original

SITUATION ANALYSIS

Description of the crisis

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 origin2 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 massive increase in the number of refugees, migrants, and returnees in transit by land northwards through Central America, compared to previous years. Just in the Northern Triangle of Central America – made up of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador – from January to July 2022, 131,857 people have returned, an increase of 110.8 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, Haitians 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. As of August 2022, the Mexican Commission for Refugee Aid (COMAR) received 77,786 asylum applications, predominately from nationals of Honduras, Haiti, Cuba, El Salvador and Venezuela4 , 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.

The high demand for assistance continues to rise as the migratory flows maintains a steady increase:

• The UN puts the number of Venezuelan migrants and refugees worldwide at 6.8 million. Most of the migrants, specifically 5.75 million, have landed in Latin American and Caribbean countries. Colombia alone accounts for 2.48 million. Colombia is followed by Peru (1.22 million), Ecuador (502,000), Chile (448,000) and Brazil (358,000), although the list includes a total of 17 Latin American and Caribbean countries.

• The number of migrants arriving to the US from Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia and Nicaragua has increased significantly since January 2021. These four nations account for the majority of encounters at ports of entry along the southwest U.S. border with migrants from countries other than Mexico and the Northern Triangle (El Salvador,
Guatemala, and Honduras).

On the other hand, migrants are reportedly using a new route from the island of San Andres. This route seeks to avoid entering Panama and Costa Rica, to arrive directly to Nicaragua and continue their journey to the US.