By Adry Torres For Dailymail.com 19 September 2023 (Click link to view videos)
- Migrants trampled over each other as well as National Guard officers and local police when they rushed a refugee agency in Tapachula, Mexico on Monday
- The group, which consisted mostly Haitian nationals, had grown restless over the time it takes the government to approve legal documents
- The papers permit the refugees to remain in Mexico, work and travel freely - the majority always seek to reach the border with the United States
A group of migrant rushed an asylum office in southern Mexico, trampling over each in an attempt to demand legal documents.
The migrants, mostly Haiti nationals, were seen on video knocking down metal barricades and storming the office in Tapachula on Monday.
Some of the migrants were able to get past National Guard officers and the municipal police who were guarding the center, which is operated by the Mexican Commission for Refugee Aid.
The group, which also includes migrants from Cuba and Honduras, have grown frustrated with the Mexican government's ability to process their asylum requests.
Papers that they're seeking would allow them to travel freely and eventually reach the United States southern border region with Mexico.
Migrants upset with the amount of time it is taking to legalize their stay in Mexico as refugees stormed the Mexican Commission for Refugee Aid in Tapachula, Chiapas on Monday
Migrants wait to get documents at the facilities of the Mexican Commission for Aid to Refugees in Tapachula, a border city in the southern state of Chiapas across from Guatemala
Some people have complained that they have had to wait weeks just to get an appointment in Tapachula, a municipality in the southern state of Chiapas that borders with Guatemala.
Miguel Argoten, of Cuba, told The Associated Press that he has been waiting in Tapachula for a week to begin his asylum process at the office, which recently has been inundated with up to 2,000 application appointments every day.
'It's very complicated, there are too many people here, the Haitians get desperate,' Argoten said. 'They knock over the barricades and that only makes the process slower.'
Two weeks ago, Daniela González abandoned Cuba with her husband and 2-year-old daughter because their work wages were not enough to support the family.
They also seek to legalize their stay in Mexico before they can trek north to the Mexico-United States border.
The Mexican government estimates they will receive 150,000 asylum requests this year, surpassing the record of 129,000 set in 2021
Migrants, most of them from Haiti, are caught in the middle of stampede moments after a security barricade was knocked over outside the Mexican Commission for Aid to Refugees in Tapachula on Monday
She cancelled the family's visit to the refugee office last Wednesday because migrants were restless and stormed the site. The government responded by deploying National Guard officers.
'We just want to resolve the paperwork, but calmly, without problems,' González said.
Andrés Ramírez, who oversees the Mexican Commission for Refugee Aid, last week said that agency expects to receive 150,000 asylum requests this year, eclipsing the record of 129,000 that they came across in 2021.
Through August they already had 100,000 - 25% above the same period in 2021. More than half of the requests were received by the agency at Mexico's shared border with Guatemala.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection data shows border agents have reported 1,973,092 encounters with migrants for unlawful entry at the southern border in fiscal year 2023, which spans from October 2022 to September 2023. Figures for August have still not been released.
In comparison, 2,378,944 encounters were reported in the fiscal year 2022, an increase from 1,734,686 the previous fiscal year and just 458,088 in all of fiscal year 2021.
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