WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th February, 2021) The United Nations Refugee Agency said on Wednesday that it has started preparing several hundred asylum-seeking migrants for entry into the United States after they had been forced to wait in the Mexican border town of Matamoros as a result of the Trump-era Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) program.
"UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, on Wednesday begins in-person registration of an estimated 750 people who have been living in the informal camp at Matamoros," the UN Refugee Agency said in a press release. "A first group could be permitted to enter the United States later this week, pending authorization from US authorities, who decide who will enter and when."
Last Friday, the United States began processing several dozen asylum-seeking migrants who were subject to the MPP program, a policy implemented by the Trump administration in January 2019 that required migrants to wait in Mexico during their US immigration hearings.
The release said the UN agencies are providing assistance at the request of the US and Mexican governments. The International Organization for Migration is providing migrants with COVID-19 testing and transportation to ports of entry while the UN Children's Fund is ensuring migrants are treated in a humanely manner.
The UN agencies are focusing their work in Matamoros, Mexico, due to difficult humanitarian conditions at a makeshift migrant camp there, the release said.
An estimated 25,000 migrants are eligible to gain entry into the United States. The US Federal government is currently processing several dozens of migrants daily, but expects to ramp up to several hundred a day in the coming weeks.
