OFFICIAL VISITS TIJUANA TO HONOR ASYLUM OFFICE
U.N. refugee agency helped fund new location for COMAR
The high commissioner from the U.N. refugee agency Filippo Grandi visited Tijuana on Tuesday to celebrate the opening of a larger asylum office.
Grandi, along with the head of Mexico’s asylum agency and other high-level officials, spoke of the importance of amplifying resources for identifying and supporting refugees in the region as well as providing aid for internally displaced Mexicans and international migrants who don’t necessarily meet the definition of a refugee but can’t return home.
Grandi’s message was one of hope for collaboration and a promise for continued assistance. At the same time, he acknowledged the real challenges faced by asylum seekers and other migrants and those who work to support them in the region.
“Mexico is registering an unprecedented increase in
asylum applications,” Grandi said in Spanish. “The factors of violence have been exacerbated during the pandemic that has also impacted a lot of economies, provoking an increase in flows in the whole region. Facing those challenges, it’s
essential to continue fortifying asylum capacity.”
The new office, which opened earlier this year, is one example of the ways the U.N. refugee agency, commonly known by its acronym UNHCR, has been working to help Mexico increase its
capacity to process asylum cases. The European Union also contributed funding to the project, which allowed the Mexico asylum agency, known by its acronym COMAR, to move from a space it shared with the Mexican agency responsible for immigration enforcement.
COMAR has had an office in Tijuana since 2019. Its new office is inside a building owned by Proyecto Salesiano, a nonprofit that supports vulnerable communities around Tijuana with food and other resources.
The collaboration with civil society allows the office to offer a more integrated approach to supporting asylum seekers while they wait for their cases to be processed and to helping those recognized as refugees establish their new lives in Tijuana.
“This is without a doubt the model response,” Grandi said.
Before attending a small reception inside the office space to hang a plaque acknowledging the funders of the space, Grandi joined high level officials from Mexico, the European Union and the U.N. to commemorate the moment and advocate for changes they believe would benefit people who have been forcibly displaced from their homes.
They called for an increase to COMAR’s budget as well as new Mexican laws that would provide support to those who have fled the states of Guerrero and Michoacán but haven’t been able to flee the country entirely, largely due to U.S. border policies. They also advocated for migratory alternatives — such as humanitarian visas — for people who cannot return to their home countries but whom Mexico does not recognize as refugees.
Grandi also called out the United States’ lack of asylum processing and the effect those border policies have on Mexico.
“The challenges are many. We have to keep working together,” Grandi said. “Tijuana is also a city that shelters people who don’t have access to asylum in the United States. It’s also vital for UNHCR to keep working to see a reopening of asylum in the United States.”
Tuesday’s visit was part of a larger tour of the region for the high commissioner. He spent Monday meeting with officials in Mexico City and planned to visit Guadalajara today before heading south to Central America and then to Washington.