Mexico

Advocacy for Mexico

What’s Happening?

Mexico is a sending, transit, and destination country for displaced people from throughout Latin America. While Mexico’s asylum laws are generous, asylum seekers still face a broad range of challenges accessing safety and integration in Mexico. The United States also exerts a great deal of influence on Mexican migration policy, including enforcement measures, which has negatively impacted many in need of protection. Mexico’s agreement to accept U.S. removals of third country nationals and metering of access to asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border through the use of the CBP One app has overwhelmed Mexican shelters and increased the vulnerability of asylum seekers to criminal attack in Mexico. At the same time, violence and extortion is leading increasing numbers of Mexicans to seek asylum in the United States. 

What Must Be Done?

Refugees International is urging the government of Mexico to continue to invest in its protection system and improve the ability of asylum seekers and refugees to gain access to work and services. It also recommends ways the United States and Mexico can collaborate to increase access to protection – including by facilitating safe passage or pathways from Mexico to the United States– rather than on enforcement that puts asylum seekers at risk of harm and continued displacement.