Photo: Luis Acosta/AFP/Getty Images
By: EFE Posted 01 Sep 2023, 19:14 pm EDT
BOGOTÁ – The Safe Mobility Center of Colombia, which is part of the program launched by the United States so that Venezuelans, Haitians and Cubans can legally migrate to that country, has received more than 11,000 applications to date, which are being processed.
“During the periods in which the applications have been opened on the portal, 11,258 applications have been received that are being evaluated and, if they meet the eligibility criteria, they will continue the established process,” the two agencies of the agency responded on Friday. UN that operate the Safe Mobility program, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (Acnur).
Since the offices began to operate in June in Colombia, Costa Rica and Guatemala, more than 38,000 people have submitted their applications on the website mobilidadsegura.org, a spokesman for the US State Department told EFE this week.
However, until last Monday, of those 38,000 individuals, only 2,100 have been able to start the procedures to request asylum in the United States, that is, 5.5% of all applicants.
Of these, according to data from the IOM and Acnur, less than a third correspond to Colombia and there is no data yet on how many of the applications are already being processed.
In addition, the offices in Colombia -located in Soacha, Medellín and Cali, although they do not have face-to-face attention, since everything is managed through the web- are not accepting new applications because, as the UN organizations explained in their response, you must “process the requests received first.”
“We call on interested people to regularly consult the website to verify when it will be available again for new applications,” the IOM and UNHCR claimed.
WHO CAN APPLY
The US government launched this six-month pilot program last June in three countries -Colombia, Costa Rica and Guatemala- with the aim of offering legal pathways to migrants and refugees who meet certain conditions and want to reach USA.
The United States launched this program to promote legal migration and prevent thousands of people from crossing the border on foot from Mexico in search of asylum or better economic opportunities and who, on their journey from Colombia, are exposed to the dangerous route through the Darién jungle, where natural dangers are compounded by violence from criminal gangs and traffickers.
However, The program is limited because only Cuban, Haitian and Venezuelan people who were in Colombia before June 12, 2023 can apply. and who have a regular status or are in the process of regularization in the country.
That is to say, the thousands of people who are passing through Colombia and simply cross to continue their journey to Darién and Central America are excluded, which casts doubt on whether it can serve to alleviate the current migratory crisis that exists on the border between Colombia and Panama.
Humanitarian organizations such as Doctors Without Borders (MSF) have warned in recent days that they are overwhelmed by the growing number of people who are arriving – between 2,000 and 3,000 a day – at the Panamanian immigration stations on the other side of the jungle and the missing medical and service needs.
So far this year, 331,213 people have crossed the dangerous Darién jungle, the natural border between Panama and Colombia, and more than 79,000 have been in August alone, according to statistics from the National Migration Service and the Panamanian Ministry of Public Security.
Until this August 31, the majority of those who crossed the Darién are still Venezuelans (199,363), followed by Ecuadorians (43,296), Haitians (35,658), Colombians (11,004), Indians (3,476), Cubans (694 ) and Dominicans (462).
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