El Paso, Texas received this Friday the first group of migrants held in Mexico, which were being held by the “Stay in Mexico” program in Ciudad Juárez.
It was previously announced that asylum-seeking migrants, who were in Mexico, would enter the border in small groups.
Here is the story of Gertrudis Ortega, a 38-year-old Mexican, who is nine months pregnant and is an asylum seeker. While he awaits his process, he looks with hope and emotion at those who arrive at the “El Buen Samaritano” shelter, of the El Buen Pastor Methodist Church in Ciudad Juárez.
His eyes light up, like many countrymen, by the expectations born of the promise of better living conditions.
It is inevitable to get excited after seeing the start of movement at the port of entry in El Paso. The immigration authorities indicated that they would begin to enter the first migrants under the Migrant Protection Protocol (MPP, for its acronym in English).
On Thursday, February 25, the first group of 25 countrymen who were waiting for their trials in Matamoros crossed. Similarly, this Friday the same process began in El Paso, Texas. The foregoing as a consequence of the press release shared by the United Nations Agency for Refugees (UNHCR), the World Organization for Migration (IOM), UNICEF and the International Red Cross.
“I do not lose hope, they told us simply not to go out because today supposedly those from the UN were coming, something like that, someone who is going to come to see you,” Gertrudis said in an interview by Voice of america.
“One hopes that this week we are all going,” she happily confessed.
It’s just the beginning
The reality is that the migrant numbers withheld in Mexico continue to rise. For example, of the 26 thousand people eligible to join the MPP, about 8 thousand cases (involving 12 thousand people) were counted in the first days that the page of connectivity.acnur.org was put into operation. The above, according to the UN.
Furthermore, if we add to that the technical problems that the “CONECTA” platform has had to face, the outlook seems pressing. On February 19, due to the high demand for its services, the site presented some failures.
Currently, it is not clear where they will process the migrants in Ciudad Juárez, nor have they mentioned any meeting point. Still, IOM representatives, UNHCR and UNICE indicated that work continues on it and that everything possible is being done to have all these details clear as soon as possible.
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