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Read, Debate: Engage.
| topic: | Refugees and Asylum |
|---|---|
| located: | USA, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador |
| editor: | Ellen Nemitz |
When the 2020 US presidential election votes were being counted, people around the globe held their breath. The interest in knowing who would be the next president of the world’s most powerful nation differed depending on each person, but for many, migration policies were certainly a crucial factor.
Many people living in Central and South American countries saw in Biden a chance of obtaining a legal resident visa in the US and reaching a haven to which they could escape from violence. Many of these people were unaccompanied children (30 percent of asylum seekers, according to Amnesty International).
Biden’s migration policies have been criticised by many public figures and institutions, however. Despite some reported improvements on how people are treated in detention, there are still serious accusations of human rights violations. The Americas director at Amnesty International, Erika Guevara-Rosas, said that both the Biden administration and Mexican government are "summarily returning almost all unaccompanied Mexican children just hours after they seek safe haven, often without considering the risks they could face upon return.”
The long-term plan recently released by the Biden administration is ambitious: preventing people from leaving their home countries by providing a billion-dollar humanitarian aid to the region, besides Covid-19 vaccine doses. US Vice President Kamala Harris has just completed a tour to Guatemala and Mexico to undertake negotiations with each government and "address the root causes prompting migrants” to flee from Central America.
The message she sent was aligned with the goal of reducing migration, not better managing the border: “I want to be clear to folks in the region who are thinking about making that dangerous trek to the United States-Mexico border. Do not come,” she said during a press conference together with Guatemalan president Alejandro Giammattei.
The reaction to her speech was immediate. Many politicians strongly condemned the vice president. The former governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley, called the situation “embarrassing”. Renowned institutions also criticised, not only her words, but also the decision not to visit the border and the length of time it took for her to make the first trip to southern countries.
Prior to the official visit, Human Rights Watch had written a letter warning that, frequently, people flee driven by the "failure to guarantee the rights and safety of vulnerable groups, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people,” or other forms of hate crimes and lack of respect to "freedom of expression and association.” They added that these concerns are valid for Guatemala, but also Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua, while Mexico has reportedly launched several attacks on human rights and the independence of the judiciary, NGOs and journalists.
The hardships affecting countries from which people flee may differ: from poverty, violence and political persecution to hate crimes or other threats to life and dignity. It will probably take some decades - and a global effort - to fix a society that had been built, over centuries, on structural inequalities and instabilities. Considering this, will US attempts to address the causes of migration by providing financial aid to Central America - which has been ongoing for a while - be effective?
Image: Prachatai.
