• PRESSURE: The record number of Central Americans filing asylum claims in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas this year should force authorities to significantly expand assistance to relieve pressure from the country’s poorest state, Mexico’s refugee agency (COMAR) warned.
• RECORD: During the first quarter of 2020, Mexico reported 22,606 asylum requests of which 71 percent were presented in the state of Chiapas (pop. 5.5 million), which borders with Guatemala. Mexican law requires asylum seekers to remain in the state where they filed their claim.
• MEASURES: “It is important (that there are) policies and measures to relieve pressure in (the state of) Chiapas, because the vast majority are also in (the city of) Tapachula”, said Andrés Ramírez, head of COMAR. “They are compelled to remain in the poorest state (in the country)”
• RESOURCES: Despite asylum requests expected to reach 90,000 this year, the López Obrador administration slashed COMAR’s budget by 14.3 percent from the equivalent of US $2.3 million in 2020 to US $2 million in 2021. Last year, Mexico received 41,329 asylum requests.
