Only 8% of the more than 60,000 people who registered in safe movement centers in Colombia, Guatemala and Costa Rica, an initiative promoted by the US Government, were referred to the refugee program of the North American country. .
In particular, 2,400 people registered in the safe movement office in Guatemala, 1,150 in Colombia and 1,250 in Costa Rica have been referred for “possible resettlement” in the United States, as reported this Monday by the person in charge of the Office of Population, Refugees and Migration of the Department of State, Martha Youth, in a call to reporters.
Youth did not provide details on how many of these individuals were actually admitted as refugees in the US.
He emphasized that three Venezuelan families referred from central Colombia have already arrived in the United States.
“We need a little time to start (…) but there is more on the line and now we can see more coming,” the official told reporters.
The youth also detailed that the US is “evaluating” 7,850 of those registered in these centers for “other legal means” of migration, such as humanitarian permits, available to Cuban citizens, Nicaragua and Venezuela, and temporary work visas.
On the other hand, he explained that 281 people who registered in Costa Rica were “referred for resettlement in Spain.”
The center that has received the most applications so far, according to the data provided by the official, dated October 17, is that of Colombia, with 43,600 people registered, followed by Costa Ria, with 32,000 applications, and finally in Guatemala. , with 14,050.
Registration for the program is done through a website and is only available for certain nationalities, depending on each country.
In Colombia, people from Venezuela, Haiti and Cuba can register; in Guatemala, nationals of that country and in Costa Rica, registration is available for Venezuelans and Nicaraguans.
The safe movement program, which was announced in the US in April of this year, is part of the efforts of the Government of Joe Biden to prevent immigration on the ground of the US.
However, the number of arrests of migrants trying to cross the Mexican border irregularly has increased over the past three months.
In the month of September alone, US authorities detained more than 210,000 people at the Mexican border, according to data from Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
At the same time, the movement of people through the Darién Forest, between Panama and Colombia, has reached historic numbers. So far this year, 400,000 people have crossed this dangerous natural border, at a rate of more than 2,000 people per day throughout the month of September, according to figures from the National Immigration Service and Ministry of Public Security in Panama.
