Mexico offers escorted rides for migrants seeking asylum in the US

Mexico will offer escorted bus rides from southern Mexico to the U.S. border for non-Mexican migrants who have been granted asylum in the United States, the government announced Saturday.

The National Immigration Institute said the buses would leave from the southern cities of Villahermosa and Tapachula, in an apparent effort to make asylum applications from southern Mexico more attractive to migrants who might otherwise head north to Mexico City or the border.

The announcement came a week after the U.S. government expanded access to the CBP One application to southern Mexico. Access to the app, which allows asylum seekers to register and wait for an appointment, was previously limited to central and northern Mexico.

The Mexican government wants more migrants to wait in southern Mexico, farther from the U.S. border. Migrants typically complain that there are few jobs available in southern Mexico for a wait that can last months. Many are in debt for their journey and feel pressure to work.

Migrants using the buses will also receive a 20-day transit permit that will allow them to travel legally through Mexico, the institute’s statement said.

Earlier, Mexican authorities had said they would honor migrants who could prove they had an asylum claim pending at the border. But some migrants reported being picked up at checkpoints and sent back south, preventing them from meeting their commitments.

According to the institute, local, state and federal law enforcement agencies provide security on the buses and meals are provided during the trip.

The rides could also help discourage some migrants from making the arduous journey north on foot. Three migrants were killed and 17 injured this week when a vehicle crashed into them on a highway in the southern state of Oaxaca.

Mexico had been pressuring the United States to expand access to CBP One, in part to ease the surge of migrants in Mexico City. Many migrants had chosen to wait for their appointments in Mexico City over the past year, where there was more work available and relatively better security than in the cartel-controlled border cities.

People with the means buy plane tickets to the border crossing where their appointments are scheduled, thereby reducing the risk of being captured by Mexican authorities or by drug cartels that kidnap migrants and demand ransom.