- Title: Dozens of U.S. asylum-seekers return home from Mexico border town
- Date: 31st July 2019
- Summary: CIUDAD JUAREZ, MEXICO (JULY 30, 2019) (REUTERS) MIGRANTS WAITING OUTSIDE SHELTER BUS THAT WILL TAKE MIGRANTS TO SOUTHERN MEXICO, SO THEY CAN BE TAKEN BACK TO THEIR HOME COUNTRIES MIGRANTS WALKING OUT OF SHELTER GATE MIGRANTS BOARDING BUS MIGRANTS DEPARTING SHELTER MIGRANTS BOARDING BUS (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) DIRECTOR OF THE "HOME OF THE MIGRANT" SHELTER IN CIUDAD JUAREZ, JAVIER CALVILLO, SAYING: "Thanks to the IOM (International Organization for Migration) that continues to work for the migrants that have taken this decision to return to their place of origin. [JOURNALIST ASKS: HOW MANY MIGRANTS ARE THERE?] There are between 74 to 80 more or less depending how many people fit and how many pregnant there are or children they take with them. [JOURNALIST ASKS: WHERE ARE THEY GOING?] They're going to Mexico City and then to Tapachula and from there each one will be transferred to their place of origin: Honduras, Guatemala or El Salvador." MIGRANTS BOARDING BUS BUS DOOR CLOSES BUS DEPARTS (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) DIRECTOR OF THE CHIHUAHUA STATE POPULATION COUNCIL, ENRIQUE VALENZUELA, SAYING: "Of the 12,000 people that have been returned (from the U.S.) through the MPP program (Migration Protection Protocols), many have shown their intention to return, many have already even returned to their country of origin." MIGRANTS DEPARTING SHELTER MIGRANTS BOARDING BUS BUSES DEPARTING (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) HONDURAN MIGRANT WAITING TO BE CALLED FOR AN INTERVIEW BY U.S. IMMIGRATION AUTHORITIES, JOVANY DEL CID, SAYING: "We're waiting here for them to continue calling people from the list. That's what they promised us, that we would be on the list and we'll be called in order and they'd be calling people daily, I don't know how many 15, 20, 30, but like that. But in the past 13 days they haven't called anyone. I don't know what's going to happen because we're still waiting." MIGRANT MIGRANTS
- Embargoed: 14th August 2019 01:16
- Keywords: home immigration Central America emigration asylum bus U.S.A. refugees returns Mexico migrants
- Location: CIUDAD JUAREZ, MEXICO
- City: CIUDAD JUAREZ, MEXICO
- Country: Mexico
- Topics: Asylum/Immigration/Refugees,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA001APZ1MPZ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: A group of some 80 Central American migrants that had been lodging at a shelter in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez waiting for their asylum claims to be processed in the United Stated opted on Tuesday (July 30) to return to their home countries.
The migrants from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador had been sent back to Mexico's Ciudad Juarez opposite El Paso, Texas, after requesting asylum in the United States under a contentious U.S. policy known as Migration Protection Protocols (MPP).
U.S. asylum cases can take months or years to be decided because of a massive backlog of immigration court cases. Even hearings can take months to be scheduled.
More than 15,000 migrants claiming asylum in the United States after crossing the U.S.-Mexican border, most of them Central Americans, have been sent back to Mexico to wait for their cases to be processed since January under MPP, according to Mexican officials.
The programme has been slammed by migrant advocates as well as asylum officers who say it could put migrants at risk by sending them for extended periods to live in some of Mexico's most violent cities.
(Production: Jose Luis Gonzalez, Manuel Carrillo) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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