Little respite for Central Americans fleeing to Mexico
The number of refugee applications has nearly doubled, from 1,296 in 2013 to 2,137 last year.
TENOSIQUE (AFP) - When her frightened nephew came to her home after murdering a gang member, the Honduran woman took her three-year-old son, fled to Mexico and applied for refugee status.
Oneylda, 35, is among a growing number of Central Americans who are applying to be accepted as refugees in Mexico after escaping gang violence back home.
The number of refugee applications has nearly doubled, from 1,296 in 2013 to 2,137 last year, according to figures from the Mexican Commission of Refugee Help (COMAR) obtained by AFP through a public information request.
Nearly 83 percent of the applicants are from the so-called Northern Triangle nations of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.
Minors accounted for 28.4 percent of total applications, up from 22.6 percent the previous year, as children continue to flee the violent region.
But Mexico only approved 35.8 percent of the applications in 2013 and even fewer, 32.9 percent, last year.
Oneylda, who fled Honduras in January, was not among the fortunate ones.
She left Honduras with her three-year-old son in January, just days after her nephew committed the crime.
But after a four-month wait, Mexican authorities rejected her refugee application.
Five months pregnant now, she is among dozens of migrants staying at the "La 72" shelter in the town of Tenosique, in southern Tabasco state, who are seeking refugee status.
"I think that (the Mexican authorities) don t have a heart to look at the problems of others. They re not conscious of what we go through," she said, resting at the shelter because doctors say she has a high-risk pregnancy.
Fear and lack of information
The United Nations refugee agency says around 3,000 Central Americans are refugees in Mexico, most of them because they are victims of gangs but also gender violence.
Jose Sieber, a Mexico-based official for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said violence was the cause behind the surge of applications last year.
According the agency s figures, the applications surged in October, after the Mexican government launched its South Border Plan, a crackdown on illegal crossings that has nearly doubled detentions of migrants and made their path to the United States more difficult.
But many Central Americans are not seeking refugee status "because they lack information or they didn t get access" to the right government agencies, Sieber said.
Juan, a 21-year-old Honduran who spent years moving around his country after the M18 gang killed some of his family members, wanted to go to America but ended up applying for refugee status with the help of a shelter in Mexico s southern Chiapas state.
Beforehand, he said, he "didn t even know" that it was possible for him to do so.
"In the government and in civil organizations, migration is the dominant narrative, when in reality we need to reinforce the fact that many Central Americans are, in reality, refugees," the UN official said.
Another problem is that Central Americans are often afraid to apply for refuge at the National Migration Institute (INM), whose agents have been hunting for illegal migrants across the southern border.
COMAR, meanwhile, only has three offices in the vast country.
Migrant rights groups say Central Americans are sometimes quickly deported without being told by officials that they have the right to apply for refugee status.
"We are working with COMAR and INM on the need for their staff to be aware of the issue, to know the reality that (Central Americans) are returned to in their countries," Sieber said.
COMAR declined to comment to AFP.
In the documents obtained by AFP, the government entity stressed that it always follows the law.
Staying in Mexico
Mexico s emerging economy and the increased difficulty in reaching the United States has prompted many migrants -- especially Hondurans -- to simply stay in Mexico.
Nelson, for instance, is a guard at a supermarket parking lot in Tenosique. Mario, who fled the ultra-violent city of San Pedro Sula, is waiting for a friend to join him in eastern Mexico to work at a taco joint. Jose plans to work at a lumberyard in the Mayan Riviera.
"Mexico is now a second option," said Mariano Castillo, the Honduran ambassador to Mexico.
Castillo estimates that 14,000 Hondurans, or 20 percent of those who migrate, stay in Mexico each year.
"Mexico is no longer just a transit country," he said. "It is a destination for those who, maybe, can t get to the United States."
