Global Courant
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (Acnur) will be the entities in charge of processing refugee applications and other migratory relief in the country, reported Jorge Andrés Gallo, spokesman for the first of the institutions for North, Central America and the Caribbean.
In a chat with Prensa Libre, he indicated that the purpose of the program is to promote regular migration and prevent more deaths and tragedies of people trying to reach the US.
What will be the participation that OIM will have in this program?
IOM and Acnur are going to do a pre-screening —first contact— of the applications, which means that we are going to check the eligibility of the people who request the different options or asylum or regular migration. Those found eligible will be interviewed and those who can demonstrate their eligibility will have their cases referred to the appropriate US authorities who make the final decision on whether to deliver a given immigration status to person.
How are these offices going to work, how can a person access these possible immigration benefits?
The only way to access the safe mobility program is through the website safemobility.org. It is very important to clarify that the management is completely free, any offer requesting money or favors to access the program is misleading. On the website people will find the requirements. It is important to clarify that not all requests will result in an appointment. Those who are found eligible for an appointment will be contacted by Acnur or by IOM to go to one of the offices that have been designated for this.
When the petition is evaluated and it is determined that someone may be eligible and the appointment is given, do you have to come to Guatemala?
Yes. The person attends the appointment and has to wait for a response, from the OIM, UNHCR or the US authorities.
But is the person physically going to come to the country?
For appointments, yes, indeed, you will have to travel to Guatemala.
And then do you have to wait here in the country or do you have to return to your country of origin?
You don’t have to wait in the country —Guatemala— you can return to your country. There are, at this time, no clear, defined instructions.
Can you return to your country or do you have to?
As I was saying, this is an exploratory stage where there are still many things that are being defined. What we want is for this procedure to be as easy as possible for migrants, so that they do not have to risk dangerous and irregular journeys, or die in an accident or in the back of a truck or crossing a river. The idea is to save lives and make migration dignified, orderly, regular and safe.
Regularly, people who ask for asylum or refuge do not want to return to their countries. Wouldn’t it be more logical for them to stay here, where they make their request?
Indeed, in the case of asylum applications, the necessary measures are being explored to carry out protection efforts. There is a network of civil society organizations and international organizations that have long had protection programs for asylum seekers and this type of network would be activated to provide the necessary protection while the people’s request is being defined.
In other words, could civil society organizations help in this plan?
We are evaluating it, it is also part of evaluating the demand for the options that are available through secure mobility. The idea is to offer a network of services that would not necessarily only be from IOM and Acnur, but from other civil society organizations. The return to the countries would be for the cases of requests for other types of regular migration options —such as family reunification or application for work visas.
Is it already known where these offices will be located?
There are two offices already selected in the south of the country —but— we don’t want to give the exact locations because of what I was saying that people will not be able to get there to make an appointment. The exact location of the offices will be received by the people who are selected for an appointment. We want to prevent people from showing up at these offices. The request is made through the website. It is not about not giving information, it is about avoiding unnecessary crowds that are traumatic for migrants, for the host communities of these offices and for municipal administrations.
Do you have any estimate of how many people you could serve per month?
We have not reached that level yet. We already have a significant number of requests that still need to be cleaned and clarified. So we prefer to avoid at this time generating expectations about how many people we are going to serve. Another thing that seems important to me to say, at certain times the website can pause in the reception of requests and it is to solve technical problems that are identified in the process and moderate the number of requests. We ask those of you who find the application form unavailable to try again later.
Will the staff working in the offices be from IOM and UNHCR or maybe there will be staff from US agencies?
In the offices where the interviews will be carried out, the officials will only be from IOM and Acnur, at this time I have no information that there will be US Government personnel in the offices.
How do you analyze this program, could it be successful in light of what was the Asylum Cooperation Agreement, signed in 2019 that did not give the expected results?
Since 2014, when the IOM’s missing migrants program began, to date, there have been more than 7,800 migrant deaths in the Americas, the vast majority of them surely going to the US. Those deaths have been given by why people migrate irregularly. Our expectation is to achieve that these numbers decrease, that fewer and fewer people are forced to migrate irregularly, that more and more people can travel in a dignified, safe and regular manner, we hope that this program contributes to that end. .
In Guatemala, it is likely that many people do not know how to use a web page. Should they seek advice?
The idea is that they are accompanied by a trusted person who can help them, making it clear again that they should not pay anyone. We are at this stage of exploration and that includes being clear about what the process will be like so that we can make it more friendly in the future for these populations.
