The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has decided to close four of its offices in Mexico due to the "financial situation the agency faces globally" and a reorganization, although it will keep eight others open.
According to UNHCR, a reorganization of operations has been carried out globally, leading to the closure of offices in several Mexican cities due to budget cuts. The closed offices were located in Palenque and Tuxtla Gutiérrez (Chiapas), Tenosique (Tabasco), and Guadalajara (Jalisco), while the offices in Mexico City, Tapachula (Chiapas), Aguascalientes, San Luis Potosí, Saltillo (Coahuila), Monterrey (Nuevo León), Villahermosa (Tabasco), Ciudad Juárez (Chihuahua), and Tijuana (Baja California) will continue to operate.
In a report presented by UNHCR, it was highlighted that in the year 2024, Mexico resolved 40% more asylum applications compared to the previous year, reaching almost 80,000 requests at the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (Comar). The country remains among the ten countries with the most asylum requests worldwide and has achieved a refugee recognition rate of over 60%.
The report also highlighted significant advancements in the digitization and adoption of biometric technology in Comar. However, UNHCR noted that the agency faces budget limitations and a lack of legal alternatives for the stay of refugees, which has overloaded the asylum system.
In 2023, more than 320,700 families were forced to change their place of residence in Mexico for safety reasons, with Chiapas experiencing the displacement of 11,000 people due to violence, and about 600 people crossing the border into Guatemala.
