Guatemala and the US on Monday launched a Web site where refugees and migrants can request US visa appointments in the latest bid to curb illegal migration, the Central American country announced.
Dubbed “Movilidad Segura” (“Safe Mobility”), the program would last six months, to “promote safe, orderly and regular migration and access to protection mechanisms,” the Guatemalan Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
Backed by the International Organization for Migration and the High Commissioner for Refugees, two UN agencies, the program seeks to shield “people from exposing themselves to scams and dangers” such as human traffickers, the statement said.
Photo: AP
People from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua would be eligible to make use of the new Web page to seek an appointment for a migrant visa or refugee status application at regional processing centers.
At the end of April, as COVID-19 pandemic-era emergency health protocols that had tightened the US-Mexico border for more than three years expired, Washington announced it would open centers in Guatemala and Colombia to screen would-be migrants and refugees.
The centers are part of an approach by US President Joe Biden’s administration to walk a political tightrope by expanding access to legal routes into the US while also making it more difficult to claim asylum at ports of entry.
Asylum claims must in most cases be lodged before arriving at the border or migrants risk rapid expulsion.
In addition to being the country of origin for thousands of people who migrate to the US each year, Guatemala is also a transit point for people on their way north.
The US Department of State said in a statement last month the US had welcomed six times as many refugees from Latin America and the Caribbean last year as the previous year, and was “on track to more than double those arrivals in ... 2023.”
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