@Chiapas Paralelo
On December 2nd, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the organization Hospitality and Solidarity (Hospitalidad y Solidaridad A. C.) inaugurated the country’s first shelter for the care and support of refugees and asylum seekers. It is located on the Puerto Madero highway, in Tapachula, and its construction was fully financed by the United Nations agency.
The hostel has the capacity to receive between 250 and 300 people and within its facilities it has a dining room, a nursery, a children’s playroom, orchards, soccer and basketball fields, as well as rooms for families, men, women, and for the LGBTI community.
According to Chiapas Paralelo reports, the commitment of the promoters of the center is “that it be not only a shelter, but be of the people who are requesting refuge or are in process with the Mexican Commission for Refugee Aid (COMAR) or the National Migration Institute (INM), apart from being able to live there for a certain time, they also receive comprehensive care”, including psychosocial support.
Currently the route to be admitted to the center passes through the institutions in charge of dealing with cases of migrants, among others the Fray Matias Human Rights Center and UNHCR.
Pablo Mora, Coordinator of Hospitality and Solidarity, given the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic in the migratory flow, declared that it “has been very low, the pandemic caused the borders to close, people have not been formally entering or have looked for other alternatives, we believe that by 2021 it will see an increase in these flows because natural disasters have caused thousands of people to leave their places of origin.”
For more information in Spanish:
Inauguran en Tapachula albergue para personas refugiadas y solicitantes de asilo (Proceso, 2 de diciembre 2020)
Inauguran en Tapachula albergue para migrantes (La Jornada, 3 de diciembre 2020)
Abren primer albergue para la atención y acompañamiento de personas refugiadas y solicitantes de asilo en Tapachula (Chiapas Paralelo, 2 de diciembre 2020)
“Cada vez llegan más personas en búsqueda de protección”: abrió en Chiapas el primer albergue para personas refugiadas y solicitantes de asilo (Infobae, 3 de diciembre 2020)
For more information from SIPAZ:
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