Mexico is on track to receive more asylum applications this year than ever before as the flow of migrants threatens to overwhelm governments of several Latin American countries along the migratory route.
Andrés Ramírez Silva, the director of Mexico’s refugee agency, said Thursday that the number of asylum applications his agency receives this year could reach 150,000, well above the 129,000 record set in 2021.
“Effectively we have a pace that is very above what we have in our record year that was 2021,” Ramírez Silva said. If that pace continues he predicted they could reach 150,000 by year’s end. Through August they already had 100,000 – 25% above the same period in 2021 -- more than half at Mexico’s shared border with Guatemala.
The demand has been so much that on Wednesday some migrants got unruly during the wait and pushed their way into the agency’s offices. That led Ramírez Silva to request help controlling the crowds from the National Guard.
On Thursday, National Guard troops in riot gear stood outside the agency’s office in Tapachula, which in recent weeks has been taking about 2,000 asylum applications daily.
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