A controversial agreement that requires asylum seekers to U.S to stay in Mexico While they await their hearings, it spread to another Mexican border city on Wednesday, authorities and a UN agency said, amid criticism from migrant protection agencies.
The program from the era of former President Donald Trump, known as Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), was relaunched in December in Ciudad Juárez, neighboring El Paso, Texas, after being suspended in January after the Joe Biden’s coming to power.
Two men, with appointments in the US courts, were sent on Wednesday to the Mexican city Tijuana, on the border with California, reported a source from the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM), who said that 224 people have arrived in the country after the resumption of the scheme, also called “Stay in Mexico.”
The organization that defends the rights of migrants “Al Otro Side” explained that the two foreigners are of Colombian nationality.
US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Mexico’s immigration authority did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has questioned the restart of the program, warning that migrants face the risk of kidnapping, rape and extortion in the dangerous border cities of Mexico.
Prior to the relaunch of the MPP, directors of migrant houses on the border between Mexico and the United States asked for support to receive more people, arguing that currently shelters in the area are saturated.
Adriana Espinoza, Undersecretary for Migration Affairs for Baja California, where Tijuana is located, said the recent arrival of thousands of Haitian migrants to the region forced authorities to open more shelters.
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