San Jose, Costa Rica:
The opening of US migrant processing centers in Colombia, Costa Rica and Guatemala is making these countries more than ever waiting rooms for asylum seekers seeking US visas.
The “Safe Mobility” initiative rolled out by Washington in Central America – the main corridor for tens of thousands hoping to reach the United States without a visa – seeks to expand legal avenues for asylum seekers as they move into countries farther from the US border. are held .
The new program kicked off May 11 with the end of Title 42, which had allowed US authorities to return migrants across the border and denied them the right to seek asylum under rules introduced as a result of the the Covid pandemic.
Migrants must now find a virtual appointment on the movilidadsegura.org website, which is supported by the UN Refugee Agency and the International Organization for Migration.
New regional processing centers in Colombia and Guatemala will interview migrants for legal pathways to the United States, Canada and Spain.
In Costa Rica, Safe Mobility offices will ensure that Nicaraguans and Venezuelans can legally migrate as long as they were in the country before June 12.
US officials consider the new program a success.
A State Department official, speaking in the background, said it was expanding legal ways for migrants to obtain visas “instead of making the perilous journey of trying to enter irregularly”.
The flow of US-bound migrants from South America – mainly Venezuela and Ecuador – has increased through the Darien, the dangerous jungle isthmus between Colombia and Panama.
More than 100,000 people have crossed the Darien so far by 2023, a sixfold increase from the same period last year, according to a recent UN statement.
Limits
US officials believe the new processing centers will make it easier for migrants to determine whether they have a legal route to the United States and avoid putting their lives in the hands of smugglers.
University of Costa Rica academic Carlos Sandoval told AFP that this initiative responds to a strategy to move immigration controls south to implement “more border controls before the physical border”.
“Mexico is the first frontier,” Sandoval said. But US officials have tried to put border controls “in Guatemala too, and now it’s coming south.”
More than 160,000 people attempted to enter the United States from Mexico in March alone, according to the State Department.
contain streams
Sandoval said three types of migrants converge in Central America on their way to the United States. There are Central Americans; those from South America, mainly Venezuela; and finally people from other parts of the world.
“Central America is and will remain a waiting room,” he said.
Guatemala, Costa Rica and Colombia will be the strategic countries to “contain these migratory flows,” said Gabriela Oviedo, coordinator of the Human Mobility Project at the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL).
‘transit point’
The United States suggests that migrants wait for processing in the country they are in, although there is no guarantee of a visa.
The three countries will have to “help vulnerable refugees get the help they need” to gain legal status there while waiting for “legal pathways to other countries, including the United States,” the ministry official said. of Foreign Affairs.
But in the colonial center of Guatemala City, Diego Berrios, a 23-year-old Venezuelan, is asking for money to continue his journey north despite the start of the migration program.
He arrived in Guatemala a few days ago and hopes to reach the US-Mexico border as soon as possible with his wife and daughters, aged one and eight.
“Here in Guatemala it’s just a transit point,” he told AFP.
Oviedo warns that “there is still no clarity” on how the processing centers will operate and what the procedures will be.
“We don’t know how long it’s going to take, what’s going to happen to people who are denied these regular permits. There’s a lot of uncertainty,” she said.
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