Mexico grapples with surging influx of migrants and asylum seekers

scores of undocumented migrants and refugees Crossing into chapas from neighboring Guatemala they're just some of the roughly 7,000 arrivals in Mexico every day on their way to the US border as they make their way North many are penniless Sylvia a Honduran says that she and her Haitian boyfriend have been living here for 3 months colar Petit arrived from Haiti 2 months ago and is working in a garage to save money to continue his trip I came here and learned new things as a mechanic but I am only here temporarily claak on the outskirts of Mexico City is full of Haitians doing what they can to survive selling food or braiding hair and trimming beards but nor all want to leave like Milton I would stay here if I got the papers I was living in Chile for years but I never got my papers I want to bring my girlfriend here we're treated well it's part of the changing face of migration in Mexico known as a Transit country for undocumented migrants and refugees most of these Venezuelans still plan to head north but a growing number of migrants roughly 140,000 have applied for Refugee status so that they can stay and work in Mexico there are opportunities to get ahead here lots of opportunities without hurting anyone I sell my sweets coffee and online I sell Venezuelan products migrants who are considering settling here do have a point in fact Mexico's largest Business Association corad mix sees migrants and refugees as a solution to what they complain is a huge deficit of Labor in this country as much as 1.6 million vacancy just last year alone but filling those jobs with people like these is not as simple as it could be the Mexican Government is constantly sending people back to the southern border where they entered the country even offering Venezuelan money to go home what we've seen for example in Colombia what we've seen in Peru in Ecuador is that when a a mass number displacement arrives in country uh some sort of humanitarian Visa that allows them to work from day one is provided in Mexico that is only happening once people claim Asylum and those permits are hard to obtain the issue is not Mexico's ability to absorb migrants and refugees eager to work but rather the government's reluctance to embrace a trend that could benefit locals and newcomers alike Lucia Newman Al jaaz Mexico City make sure to subscribe to our channel to get the latest news from Al jazer

Channel: Al Jazeera English

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Keywords: Aljazeera, Human rights, Mexico immigration policy, Mexico undocumented migrants, Mexico work permits, al jazeera, al jazeera english, aljazeera english, aljazeera live, aljazeera news, americasnews, central america migrant crisis, central american migrants, latin america, latin american asylum seekers in mexico, mexi illegal migration, mexico border security, mexico latest news

Id: QWOZ0i3U29E

Length: 3min 3sec (183 seconds)

Published: Sun May 26 2024