‘To prevent kidnapping’ – Chiapas migrant shelters at peak, new asylum registration strategy promises safe routes to US border

“A shelter in Chiapas was filled with migrants on Wednesday after Mexico implemented a new asylum registration system that allows migrants to apply for asylum in the south before traveling to the U.S. border. “They told us that in Tabasco and Chiapas, Mexico, they help the migrants, that’s why I came here to avoid a kidnapping, because many times they have presented themselves with migrants from Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, all of them. If they go with their families or on their own, they grab them on the road and take five thousand and even ten thousand dollars,” one migrant claimed. “Now I’m waiting for my appointment to travel more safely from here at the Tapachula border. I think it’s great and I’m very happy with it,” said another migrant. Migrants heading north to file asylum claims have faced a series of challenges, including reported attacks and kidnappings by criminal gangs, according to media reports. As part of a new strategy to curb irregular migration and create safe routes for those traveling north, migrants can now register for a CBP One application in southern Mexico, including in Chiapas and Tabasco. Mexico said last month it would offer assisted bus rides from the south to the U.S. border for those migrants who already have a U.S. asylum claim. This came a week after the U.S. expanded the area in Mexico where migrants can apply for an appointment via a mobile application. “I left Honduras in December (2023). “I registered the application on January 6 and had not updated it, but I updated it on Thursday the 12th and on Friday the 13th they approved my appointment,” explained one migrant. As a result of the situation in Chiapas, activists and migrants have claimed that violence unleashed by organized crime has increased and have accused the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of ignoring the problem. Mexico has seen an increase in migrants from Haiti, Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia and other countries hoping to enter the United States. Although irregular migration through Mexico to the United States has decreased by 66 percent, 712,000 arrived in Mexico in the first half of the year.”