Politics

Haitian exodus to Mexico surges in 2023

Juan Manuel Blanco and Pedro Pablo Cortés

Tapachula, Mexico, Jan 19 (EFE).- The tragedy of the mass exodus from Haiti intensified in Mexico in 2023, as asylum requests from Haitians increased by 157% and the number of irregular migrants increased by 1,333% over the previous year.

Mexican authorities registered 41,705 irregular migrants from Haiti between January and November 2023, compared to 2,910 during the same period in 2022, according to the Migration Policy Unit of the Ministry of the Interior.

Furthermore, Haiti replaced Honduras as the main country of origin of petitioners to the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (known as COMAR for its acronym in Spanish), with 44,239 petitions in 2023, more than double the 17,220 requests from the Caribbean country in 2022.

That means nearly one in three of the record 140,982 asylum requests Mexico received in 2023 came from Haitians.

Haitian’s plight on Mexico’s southern border

The humanitarian crisis of Haitians can be seen on Mexico’s southern border, where thousands of Haitians wander the streets in search of food and the refugee office is overwhelmed by the demand.

“Water, water, buy me water,” said Haitian migrant Bundy Modeste as he walked through Bicentenario Park in Tapachula, on Mexico’s border with Central America, where he has found itinerant work while waiting for his asylum process.

He told EFE that he is a heavy truck driver, but has not found a job in his field, so his goal is to go to Mexico City or Tijuana, on Mexico’s border with California, to look for work.

“I’m looking for a COMAR paper,” he said, showing his driver’s license. “I like it here better than in the United States, because the United States (deported me) to Haiti in 2021, and now I don’t want to go to the United States anymore.”

His case illustrates the obstacles Haitians face in Mexico, where the refugee office reported having solved only 3,655 cases of migrants from Haiti during 2023, 8.28% of the applications.

The Haitian crisis The assassination of President Jovenel Moïse on July 7, 2021, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake on Aug. 14 that killed thousands, and Hurricane Grace two days later, which disrupted recovery and relief efforts and destroyed homes and shelters previously damaged by the earthquake, exacerbated a constant exodus caused by many years of extreme poverty.

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, according to the World Bank, and 4.9 million of its 11 million people are food insecure.

Fleeing from the still unresolved problems, Falu, a Haitian, arrived in Tapachula to present a request to COMAR.

Unlike migrants of other nationalities trying to reach the United States, Haitians like Falu are more likely to stay in Mexico.

“We come here again for a while to see if there is an opportunity to move forward, also in order to continue you have to have money, there are many who do not have money to move forward,” explained the migrant. EFE

jmb-ppc/ics

Related Articles

Back to top button