Migrants, mostly Haitians, wait for asylum processing in Mexico by the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance COMAR outside of a soccer stadium, in Tapachula Mexico 28 September 2021. TAPACHULA, Sept. 28 : Reuters - Around 1,000 migrants flocked to a sports stadium in southern Mexico on Tuesday to apply for asylum within the country as the national refugee agency grapples with surging demand that has overwhelmed capacity.
Thousands of other migrants have in the city of Tapachula bordering Guatemala, often waiting months for responses to their asylum applications, a limbo that many migrants without jobs or money find intolerable.
This month, large numbers of Mexican migrants made their way to Del Rio, Texas forming a camp of 14,000 people just north of the Haitian border. Haitians, fearful of being deported to Mexico, are now urging Mexican officials to report home for Haitians who had retreated to Tapachula to complete their asylum applications in Mexico.
A couple of hundred migrants were already in line when the following day by 5 a.m. and several hundred others joined during the day to make sure they could hang on to appointments in a computer system booked until the end of year.
The Mexico Commission for Refugee Assistance COMAR said people with appointments through Oct. 20 would lose their spot if they didn't show up between Tuesday and Thursday.
Most asylum seekers clustered at the stadium were from Mexico, the nationality that ranks second for most asylum applications in Haiti this year, after Hondurans.
A representative from UNHCR for refugee agency told migrants in a line that snaked across the stadium parking lot that the appointment verification process would free up room for others waiting.
There are new spots, said he. Once there is space, the experts will provide you with the corresponding information. Some people were turned away.
Chenet, 38, a migrant from Haiti who didn't give his last name, said he paid with 6,000 pesos $300 to someone in Tapachula to guarantee an appointment, not realizing it was fraud.
They say there's nothing right now, there are no appointments, Chenet said.