Thousands of migrants in southern Mexico seek asylum

(16 Oct 2021) Thousands of migrants, mostly Haitians, continue crowding the temporary base of the Mexican Commission for Refugee Aid (COMAR) in Tapachula's Olympic Stadium, in search of refuge. In an attempt to streamline procedures and stem the flow of migrants to the United States, COMAR opened a centre for asylum seekers on Mexico's southern border a month ago. Previously, huge crowds had packed the streets around the commission's downtown offices in Tapachula. Some activists in Tapachula look at the stadium facility sceptically, questioning whether the government is just trying to appear helpful while maintaining a policy of containing migrants in southern Mexico. Luis García Villagrán of the Center for Human Dignity said Mexican officials were condemning people to stay up to a year "in a city that has no way of being able to sustain this overpopulation." Nicaraguan migrant Luis Antonio López made it to the United States with a convoy in 2018 but was deported. He says he will try one more time, and if he gets deported again, he will return to Mexico and look for a job there. Haitian Jean Benson Leon has been in Tapachula for three months. He gets by working as a barber, the same thing he did in Brazil, where he left a wife and two children. "Staying here in Tapachula is not very good for me," he said. "When I'm eating, I eat thinking about what my daughter might be eating." "To be honest, it is very difficult." Find out more about AP Archive: https://bit.ly/310O7mR Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://bit.ly/3m6JRdt ​​ Instagram: https://bit.ly/2OFcQCo You can license this story through AP Archive: https://bit.ly/30Q4CBP