The hidden faces within the unprecedented wave of refugee applications in Mexico

Mexico City, Aug 3 (EFE).- Using a fictitious name and with her face shrouded in darkness from backlighting, Rosa, Valentina and Rosario, victims of political persecution and/or the cruelest forms of violence, are some of the 74,764 faces hidden amid the unprecedented avalanche of refugee applications that Mexico has received during the first half of 2023.

Although their proceedings before the Mexican Commission for Aid to Refugees (Comar) are in the advanced stages, thus protecting them from deportation, for security reasons many people are refusing to acknowledge the hard, cold figures, which if the present trend continues will amount to a record 150,000 refugee requests this year.

The case of Valentina, a 47-year-old Ecuadorian, is extraordinary due to the speed with which her proceedings have progressed. It only took a few days for her to obtain her refugee status – although it normally takes many months – but the violence she endured that justified her trek to Mexico is also common to many migrants.

She left Guayaquil after, amid of the wave of violence that is plaguing that city, an organized criminal group murdered a woman near her restaurant for having denounced the extortion to which they had been subjecting her.

“The same day that she complained she was shot and all her blood splattered on me. The next day, when I opened my store, I found a bullet placed there and I thought that it was for me,” Valentina, who chose to call herself by this fictitious name for security reasons, told EFE in an interview.

What came after that was no better: upon her arrival in Mexico, a group of local men kidnapped her, raped her and separated her from her 23-year-old daughter.

Violence and extortion also drove 22-year-old Rosa from Comayagua, the former capital of Honduras. Alone, she set out vowing never to return to her homeland.

“I want a different future, and if Mexico offers it to me, I’ll stay here. If not, I’ll go to the United States,” the young woman acknowledged, waiting for Comar to resolve her case.

Rosario’s story rounds out the collection of reasons why more and more people are request refugee status. She is one of the many former Guatemalan officials being persecuted by her own government.

After years of resistance, at the beginning of this year an arrest warrant was issued for her that resulted in driving her from her country.

Upon passing through passport control at the Mexico City airport, she says, she wishes she had knelt down and kissed the ground in gratitude.

“At that moment I did not have nostalgia for what I had left, what I had was the need to be in a safe place, because I felt that in Guatemala I could lose my life,” she said.

In their search for a better future, the migrants consulted by EFE, as well as several thousand others, are being guided and aided by organizations such as Asylum Access and Casa Mambre, which provide them with legal support in their Comar proceedings.

Once they are recognized as refugees, they will have the right to get regular work, to attend school, to obtain health care and to reunite with their family members by bringing them to Mexico, the latter of which is a priority for Rosa, who left her two children in Honduras.

“I think the future will be fine, because here they’re supporting me and helping me to study, work and (to get a) permanent residence. I hope that there will come a time when I can have stability, have my legal papers and the financial means to bring my children here,” she said, reflecting the fact that Mexico is increasingly a destination country for migrants from elsewhere in Latin America.

On the other hand, Rosario does not want to close the door on someday returning to Guatemala. With luck, and if that country’s justice system does not interfere, that could come as early as August 20 if progressive candidate Bernardo Arevalo prevails in the runoff round of the presidential election.

“I want to return to my country, it’s my biggest hope, but I’ve (also) thought about getting a Master’s Degree or a doctorate,” she said.

Valentina, the only one of the trio who already has refugee status, is also the only one who wants to continue her journey northwards because she wants to get as far as possible from those who abused her.

“I don’t see a future in Mexico, because the people who kidnapped me are looking for me. I’m terrified that they’ll find me and something will happen to me,” Valentina said, on the verge of tears.

EFE