Mexican asylum seekers set their sights north — on Canada.
More than 3,000 asylum seekers have left the first official point of entry at La Paz, Mexico, for the northern border of Canada. The majority are fleeing violence in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.
“The border is moving very slowly,” said Miguel Angel Tovar, an asylum-seeker from Honduras.
“We are not moving fast because we are tired, we are waiting for Canada to send us the documents we need to apply for asylum there.”
The Canadian government has yet to respond to the asylum seekers’ concerns, but is sending asylum-seekers directly to a deportation centre in southern Ontario.
The decision to send them north has been influenced by increased violence in the country, including the recent deaths of 34 people in a plane crash.
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At the same time, asylum-seekers in Mexico are frustrated by the slow pace of processing.
Many have called repeatedly for the Mexican government to speed up the processing.
“The only thing that works is speed for us is to cross, or get there as fast as we can,” said Tovar.
“For Mexico, I think they are not aware of that.”
Tovar, a 25-year-old, was on the bus from Mexico to a refugee camp in the United States. He’s now waiting in a camp for a “safe house” where he can apply for asylum.
Tovar has no immediate plans to return to Mexico.
“We are looking for jobs and work to be able to live on, to be able to get by with what we can do, and we want to be able to continue doing so,” he said.
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In Canada, the average time it takes to process an asylum claim is more than six months.
Tovar plans to apply for refugee status and apply for citizenship in Canada. If he doesn’t have refugee status in Canada, he’ll continue looking for a safe house and apply for asylum in a third country.
The process for asylum-seekers travelling north is even harder.
Some leave their
