Mexico offers escorted rides north from southern Mexico for migrants with US asylum appointments

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico will offer escorted bus rides from southern Mexico to the U.S. border for non-Mexican migrants who have received a United States asylum appointment, the government announced Saturday.

The National Immigration Institute said the buses will leave from the southern cities of Villahermosa and Tapachula. It appeared to be an attempt to make applying for asylum appointments from southern Mexico more attractive to migrants who otherwise would push north to Mexico City or the border.

The announcement came a week after the U.S. government expanded access to the CBP One application to southern Mexico. Access to the app, which allows asylum seekers to register and await an appointment, had previously been restricted to central and northern Mexico.

The Mexican government wants more migrants to wait in southern Mexico farther from the U.S. border. Migrants typically complain there is little work available in southern Mexico for a wait that can last months. Many carry debts for their trip and feel pressure to work.

The migrants who avail themselves of the buses will also receive a 20-day transit permit allowing them legal passage across Mexico, the institute’s statement said.

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Previously, Mexican authorities said they would respect migrants who showed that they had a scheduled asylum appointment at the border, but some migrants reported being swept up at checkpoints and shipped back south, forced to miss their appointments.

Local, state and federal law enforcement will provide security for the buses and meals will be provided during transit, the institute said.

The rides could also help discourage some migrants from making the arduous journey north on foot. Three migrants were killed and 17 injured this week when a vehicle barrelled into them on a highway in the southern state of Oaxaca.

Mexico had pressured the United States to expand CBP One access in part to alleviate the build up of migrants in Mexico City. Many migrants had opted over the past year to wait for their appointments in Mexico City where there was more work available and comparatively more security than the cartel-controlled border cities.

Those with the resources buy plane tickets to the border crossing point where their appointments are scheduled to reduce the risk of being snagged by Mexican authorities or by the cartels, which abduct and ransom migrants.