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Most enter near the city of Tapachula, in Chiapas state. Nearly half of all asylum applicants in Mexico in 2021 were Haitians. Most of those entering the southern border are Black, brown, and Indigenous people from Central America and the Caribbean who lack visas to enter Mexico. A decade ago, just a few thousand applied per year. A record 130,863 people also applied for refugee status in Mexico in 2021, the third-highest number in the world according to the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR. Mexico apprehended 307,569 migrants in 2021, the highest number ever recorded. Any agreement signed should include commitments by leaders to restore and expand access to protection across the continent, to end heavy-handed enforcement policies that have led to abuses. Leaders from the Western Hemisphere are expected to sign a regional declaration on migration and protection during the Summit of the Americas, hosted by President Biden in Los Angeles. “The Summit of the Americas is an opportunity for regional leaders, including presidents Biden and López Obrador, to commit to a regional migration agreement that moves away from heavy-handed enforcement policies and towards protection and human rights.” “Outsourcing US immigration enforcement to Mexico has led to serious abuses and forced hundreds of thousands to wait in appalling conditions to seek protection,” said Tyler Mattiace, Americas researcher at Human Rights Watch. Those who cross Mexico’s southern border fleeing violence and persecution struggle to obtain protection, face serious abuses and delays, and are often forced to wait for months in inhumane conditions near Mexico’s southern border while struggling to find work or housing.
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Refugee status applications and migrant apprehensions in Mexico have risen dramatically as US President Joe Biden has continued restricting access to asylum at the US southern border, and pushed Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to heavily regulate travel to and within Mexico in order to prevent non-Mexican migrants from reaching the US. As leaders meet in Los Angeles for the Summit of the Americas, they should commit to ending abusive anti-immigration policies and to ensuring people seeking protection are received humanely in the US, Mexico, and elsewhere. (Los Angeles) – Migrants and asylum seekers who enter Mexico through its southern border face abuses and struggle to obtain protection or legal status as a result of policies aimed at preventing them from reaching the US, Human Rights Watch said today. Improve Conditions, Procedures US Should End Pressure to Block Arrivals