US Gov. Decides to Return Asylum Seekers to Mexico

The US Department of Homeland Security has announced a policy, effective immediately, that will return asylum seekers to Mexico while their claims are processed in the United States.

Arina News Agency- This raises serious concerns about whether asylum-seeking adults and families will be obstructed in their ability to pursue their asylum claims, have decisions delayed to the point of having their claims for protection unanswered, and exposed to harm in Mexico while their claims are pending.

Prior to the announcement of the so-called “Migration Protection Protocols” policy, the US government’s decision to “meter” the claims of asylum seekers was already causing them to wait long periods in Mexico. The new policy will inevitably add to long wait times for people fleeing violence and harm in Central America in order to seek asylum in the US, Human Rights Watch said.

According to the Mexican government, the country is currently facing an “emergency of violence and insecurity.” The national security plan of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador states in its opening sentence: “The violence, killings, and criminality in our country have reached historic levels and we are among the most unsafe countries in the world.”

The number of homicides in Mexico in 2017 was the highest since the country began keeping record in 1997, and is projected to be even higher in 2018. Several northern states are among the most violent in the country, including Baja California, where Tijuana is located, which has the second highest number of homicides.

“The US is sending asylum seekers back to a country whose own government says it is among the most unsafe in the world,” said Daniel Wilkinson, Americas managing director at Human Rights Watch. “It’s totally unrealistic to think that a government that is struggling to contain what it calls an ‘emergency of violence and insecurity’ can be expected to keep Central American asylum seekers safe for months and years.”