CIUDAD HIDALGO, Mexico: As soon as she stepped onto Mexican soil this week, Venezuelan migrant Yuri Carolina Melendez downloaded the US government’s app to apply for asylum appointments.
The CBP One app has been around, but as of Friday migrants in Mexico’s southernmost states bordering Guatemala will be able to apply for appointments. Previously, they had to be in central or northern Mexico.
“I have to wait to see if it really works,” the woman said while resting under a tree with her 16- and 18-year-old daughters along a border highway leading to the city of Tapachula this week.
Mexico has been asking the US to expand the app’s access to the south in an attempt to relieve the pressure migrants feel to continue north to at least Mexico City. In recent years, the Mexican government has tried to contain migrants in the south farther from the US border, but the lack of work opportunities and housing in southern cities like Tapachula have pushed migrants north.
Mexico hopes that if migrants can wait for their appointments in the south they might not risk getting snagged by authorities without papers or by organized crime groups that prey on migrants traveling north. With an appointment, they could, in theory, move without interference.
Germin Aleman, a 31-year-old from Honduras traveling with his wife and three children, planned to register as soon as they reached Tapachula. “We’re going to apply here, we’re going to wait for the appointment,” he said as they walked from the border toward Tapachula.
Others, however, still felt the pressure to get farther north. Many migrants often carry big debts and need to start paying them off as soon as possible. Melendez, for instance, said she planned to keep moving to improve her chances of finding work.
CBP One has been one of the measures of greatest impact in US efforts to bring order to the growing demand for US asylum along its southwestern border.
In the 2023 fiscal year, US Customs and Border Protection reported more than 2.4 million encounters with migrants along the US Southwest border.
Since the app was launched in January 2023, more than 765,000 people have scheduled appointments to request asylum. Immigration has become a central issue in the US presidential election.
When the Biden administration temporarily suspended the asylum process for those who crossed illegally in June, the app became one of the only ways to request asylum. The US handles 1,500 appointments daily.
The number of migrants crossing the US border illegally has fallen significantly since peaking in December 2023. Washington attributes much of that decline to Mexico’s enforcement efforts, which include nabbing migrants in the north and sending them south again.
Still, Mexico welcomes CBP One’s expansion.
“That is going to help us a lot,” Foreign Affairs Secretary Alicia Barcena said earlier this month when she announced the expansion was coming. Immigration is a key issue in the two countries’ relationship.
But for dozens of nongovernmental groups that advocate for migrants and human rights, there is little to celebrate.
In an open letter to the Mexican government Thursday, they called CBP One “a violation of international law” because it allows the US to limit access to its territory for people in need of protection.
The groups argued that many migrants wind up stuck in Mexico for months waiting in full shelters or camping in unsanitary conditions. While they wait they are vulnerable to kidnapping, sexual assaults, torture and extortion by criminals and authorities, they said.
In theory, Mexico’s National Immigration Institute allows migrants with CBP One appointments to travel freely to the US border, but the organizations said authorities still sometimes detain migrants and send them south again to keep them from the border.
The institute did not respond to a request for comment about those allegations.
In southern Mexico, migrants have always been targets of smugglers and criminals but the region was quite peaceful for the rest of its inhabitants. Now the situation has changed. The southern border region is locked in a territorial struggle between Mexico’s most powerful drug cartels, which want to control routes for smuggling drugs, weapons and migrants. Violence is part of daily life in a lot of border towns.
Among migrants waiting in Ciudad Hidalgo’s central plaza near the Suchiate river that divides Mexico and Guatemala, the question remains whether to wait or to keep moving north.
As a group of migrants debated the answer, the factor that weighed most heavily was money. The migrants had heard the chances of finding jobs are higher in central and northern Mexico, and money is needed for what could be a monthslong wait for an appointment.
“If there are work opportunities we’ll stay; if not, we’ll keep advancing until they give us an appointment,” said Yuleidi Banque, a 28-year-old Venezuelan who had just arrived in Mexico with her partner and her 7-year-old daughter.
“My daughter isn’t well … she’s fed through a feeding tube. We need help,” Banque said.
The United Nations Refugee Agency is cautious about CBP One’s expansion.
Giovanni Lepri, the Mexico chief for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said it could mean fewer risks for migrants headed north. But he added that dealing with migration requires diverse measures, “those like stabilizing the countries of origin, protection in the transit countries and options for regularization and asylum in destination countries.”
For Noemi Ramirez, a 47-year-old from El Salvador, hearing that she could begin her asylum application from Mexico’s Chiapas state led her to immediately set off with her 19-year-old daughter for Tapachula.
“We’re going to wait until we get an appointment. I’m not thinking of going any farther,” she said as they walked, worrying about the violence they could face along the way. “I’m not going to risk it with my daughter. We’re alone.”
US expands area in Mexico to apply for border asylum appointments, hoping to slow push north
https://arab.news/v4xr3
US expands area in Mexico to apply for border asylum appointments, hoping to slow push north
- Migrants in Mexico’s southernmost states bordering Guatemala will be able to apply for appointments
- Mexico hopes that if migrants can wait for their appointments in the south they might not risk getting snagged by authorities or by organized crime groups
At least 10 killed in Afghanistan attack, interior ministry says
- The nature of the attack was not immediately clear
The nature of the attack was not immediately clear.
China urges ICC to take ‘objective’ position after Netanyahu arrest warrant
- Warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant ‘for crimes against humanity and war crimes’
- China, like Israel and the United States, is not a member of the International Criminal Court
BEIJING: China urged the International Criminal Court on Friday to remain objective and fair after it issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“China hopes the ICC will uphold an objective and just position (and) exercise its powers in accordance with the law,” foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said at a regular press conference in response to a question about the court’s warrant for Netanyahu.
The ICC issued warrants for Netanyahu and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant on Thursday “for crimes against humanity and war crimes” committed between October 8, 2023, and May 20 this year.
It said there were “reasonable grounds” to believe the pair bore “criminal responsibility” for using starvation as a method of warfare and intentionally attacking civilians.
Netanyahu denounced the move as anti-Semitic and the court’s accusations as “absurd and false.”
China, which like Israel and the United States is not a member of the ICC, said it “supports any efforts by the international community on the Palestinian issue that are conducive to achieving fairness and justice and upholding the authority of international law.”
Lin also accused the United States of “double standards” in response to a question about the US opposition to the court’s pursuit of Netanyahu, but its support for a warrant against Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
“China consistently opposes certain countries only use international law when it suits them... and engaging in double standards,” Lin said.
US President Joe Biden has condemned the warrants against Israeli leaders, calling them “outrageous.”
COP29 host urges collaboration as deal negotiations enter final stage
- Sweeping plan that would see rich nations pledge to hand over hundreds of billions of dollars to help poorer countries grapple with the worsening impacts of global warming
BAKU: COP29 climate summit host Azerbaijan urged participating countries to bridge their differences and come up with a finance deal on Friday, as negotiations at the two-week conference entered their final hours.
World governments represented at the meeting in the Caspian Sea city of Baku are tasked with agreeing a sweeping plan that would see rich nations pledge to hand over hundreds of billions of dollars to help poorer countries grapple with the worsening impacts of global warming.
Economists have said developing countries need at least $1 trillion annually by the end of the decade, but wealthy nations have so far been resisting. Negotiations have also been clouded by uncertainty over the role of the United States, the world’s top historic greenhouse gas emitter, ahead of climate skeptic President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
“We encourage parties to continue to collaborate within and across groups with the aim of proposing bridging proposals that will help us to finalize our work here in Baku,” the COP29 presidency said in a note to delegates on Friday morning.
It said a new draft deal would be released at midday in Baku, in the hopes of a deal by the end of the day.
Past COPs have traditionally run over time.
Division and discontent over the negotiations have already spilled into the open, after a fresh deal draft was released by the presidency on Thursday that offered two vastly different options that left no-one happy.
Although the 10-page document was slimmed to less than half the size of the previous versions issued at the summit, it avoided stating the total funds countries would aim to invest each year, leaving the space marked with an “X.”
It also reflected big divisions over issues such as whether funds should be offered as grants or loans, and the degree to which different types of non-public finance should count toward the final annual goal.
“I hope they find the sweet spot with this next iteration,” said Li Shuo, director of the China Climate Hub at the Asia Society, a veteran observer of COP summits. “Anything other than that may require rescheduling flights.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres returned to Baku from a G20 meeting in Brazil on Thursday, calling for a major push to get a deal and warning that “failure is not an option.”
Ireland’s anti-immigration right eyes election gains
- After recession and economic slowdown from 2008, immigration surged again following the coronavirus pandemic
- Some 20 percent of Ireland’s 5.4-million population is now foreign-born
Dublin: The Dublin office of lawyer Malachy Steenson doubles as his election campaign headquarters. Outside is an Irish tricolor and a sign reading: “Take back our nation.”
Inside, Steenson summarised his platform for the November 29 vote. “We need to close the borders and stop any more migrants coming in,” he told AFP.
Ireland is one of the few European Union members without any large established far-right party. But for the first time, immigration has become a frontline election issue.
Steenson, white-haired and 61, is part of an emerging group of ultra-nationalist politicians who performed well at local elections this year and now aim to gain a foothold in parliament.
Elected to Dublin City Council in June, he is running as an independent in the inner-city Dublin Central constituency that is now one of Ireland’s most ethnically diverse.
Most mainstream parties have spent much of the campaign bickering over solutions to Ireland’s acute housing shortage.
But for Steenson, migrants and asylum-seekers are exacerbating that crisis.
“If you import people who are going to sit around on welfare in accommodation that should be available to Irish nationals you’re just creating a bigger problem,” he said.
Ireland’s economy has attracted immigrants since the 1990s when eye-popping growth earned it the “Celtic Tiger” moniker.
After recession and economic slowdown from 2008, immigration surged again following the coronavirus pandemic, plugging job vacancies in booming tech, construction, and hospitality sectors, as well as health care.
Some 20 percent of Ireland’s 5.4-million population is now foreign-born. Official data showed a population increase fueled by migration of around 100,000 in the year to April 2024 — the largest since 2007.
But rapid demographic growth has heaped pressure on housing, services and infrastructure strained by lack of investment, fanning anti-migrant sentiment and hitting still largely favorable attitudes to immigration.
“Immigration is on everyone’s minds,” said Caroline Alwright, a fruit and vegetable stall-owner on Moore Street, a historic city-center market which has become a multicultural meeting place for different nationalities.
“A lot of people will vote for independent candidates, they see what is going on in this country,” said Alwright, 62, a veteran trader nicknamed by customers the “Queen of Moore Street.”
“This street has gone downhill, the country is being robbed blind with money given to people doing nothing on welfare,” she added, gesturing toward a group of Eastern European Romani.
In Kennedy’s pub across the constituency several punters also murmured discontent.
“The buses are full of foreigners, I would vote for anyone saying ‘Ireland is full’ and promising to do something about it,” said Mick Fanning, 74.
Around 110,000 Ukrainians have arrived in Ireland since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, one of the highest numbers per head of population in the EU.
Meanwhile asylum applications have surged to record levels since 2022, with this year’s figures driven by a fourfold increase in people arriving from Nigeria.
The large inflow and the housing crisis has prompted the government to stop providing accommodation to all asylum seekers last year.
That forced hundreds of single male applicants to sleep rough in tents, sparking hostile reactions from some anti-migrant locals.
Ireland has also seen a spike in arson attacks on buildings rumored or earmarked to provide reception centers for asylum seekers.
Last year the largest riot seen in Dublin for decades was triggered by a knife attack on children by an Irish national of immigrant origin.
At the other end of the ward, students at Dublin City University were supportive of immigration.
“We are not full, that’s a closed mindset,” said Carla Keogh, 19, a teaching student.
“If we look into our own past, Irish people left to find help and support in other places, as humans we need to open ourselves up.”
The ultra-nationalist vote is fragmented by micro parties and independents, with few, if any, expected to make an electoral breakthrough.
Anti-immigration votes will rather channel toward moderate independents “who are more outspoken on migration” than more radical options, said political scientist Eoin O’Malley, from Dublin City University.
Most mainstream parties have also pledged to tighten up the asylum system.
The number of arrivals from Ukraine dropped this year after the government slashed allowances and accommodation benefits for newly arrived refugees.
“We were called fascists, racists, far-right, when we proposed the same things two years ago, when in fact we are none of those things,” said Steenson who self-describes as a nationalist.
South Korea’s mountain of plastic waste shows limits of recycling
- South Korea says that it recycles 7% of its plastic waste, compared to about 5%-6% in the US
SEOUL: South Korea has won international praise for its recycling efforts, but as it prepares to host talks for a global plastic waste agreement, experts say the country’s approach highlights its limits.
When the talks known as INC-5 kick off in Busan next week, debate is expected to center around whether a UN treaty should seek to limit the amount of plastic being made in the first place.
South Korea says that it recycles 73 percent of its plastic waste, compared to about 5 percent-6 percent in the United States, and the country might seem to be a model for a waste management approach.
The bi-monthly MIT Technology Review magazine has rated South Korea as “one of the world’s best recycling economies,” and the only Asian country out of the top 10 on its Green Future Index in 2022.
But environmental activists and members of the waste management industry say the recycling numbers don’t tell the whole story.
South Korea’s claimed rate of 73 percent “is a false number, because it just counts plastic waste that arrived at the recycling screening facility — whether it is recycled, incinerated, or landfilled afterward, we don’t know,” said Seo Hee-won, a researcher at local activist group Climate Change Center.
Greenpeace estimates South Korea recycles only 27 percent of its total plastic waste. The environment ministry says the definition of waste, recycling methods and statistical calculation vary from country to country, making it difficult to evaluate uniformly.
South Korea’s plastic waste generation increased from 9.6 million tons in 2019 to 12.6 million tons in 2022, a 31 percent jump in three years partly due to increased plastic packaging of food, gifts and other online orders that mushroomed during the pandemic, activists said. Data for 2023 has not been released.
A significant amount of that plastic is not being recycled, according to industry and government sources and activists, sometimes for financial reasons.
At a shuttered plastic recycling site in Asan, about 85km south of Seoul, a mountain of about 19,000 tonnes of finely ground plastic waste is piled up untreated, emitting a slightly noxious smell. Local officials said the owner had run into money problems, but could not provide details.
“It will probably take more than 2-3 billion won ($1.43 million-$2.14 million) to remove,” said an Asan regional government official. “The owner is believed unable to pay, so the cleanup is low priority for us.”
Reuters has reported that more than 90 percent of plastic waste gets dumped or incinerated because there is no cheap way to repurpose it, according to a 2017 study.
NO CONCRETE GOALS
South Korean government’s regulations on single-use plastic products have also been criticized for being inconsistent. In November 2023, the environment ministry eased restrictions on single-use plastic including straws and bags, rolling back rules it had strengthened just a year earlier.
“South Korea lacks concrete goals toward reducing plastic use outright, and reusing plastic,” said Hong Su-yeol, director of Resource Circulation Society and Economy Institute and an expert on the country’s waste management.
Nara Kim, a Seoul-based campaigner for plastic use reduction at Greenpeace, said South Korea’s culture of valuing elaborate packaging of gifts and other items needs to change, while other activists pointed to the influence of the country’s petrochemical producers.
“Companies are the ones that pay the money, the taxes,” said a recycling industry official who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue, adding that this enabled them to wield influence. “The environment ministry is the weakest ministry in the government.”
The environment ministry said South Korea manages waste over the entire cycle from generation to recycling and final disposal.
The government has made some moves to encourage Korea Inc. to recycle, including its petrochemical industry that ranks fifth in global market share.
President Yoon Suk Yeol said at the G-20 summit on Tuesday that “efforts to reduce plastic pollution must also be made” for sustainable development, and that his government will support next week’s talks.
The government has changed regulations to allow companies like leading petrochemical producer LG Chem to generate naphtha, its primary feedstock, by recycling plastic via pyrolysis. SK Chemicals’ depolymerization chemical recycling output has already been used in products such as water bottles as well as tires for high-end EVs.
Pyrolysis involves heating waste plastic to extremely high temperatures causing it to break down into molecules that can be repurposed as a fuel or to create second-life plastic products. But the process is costly, and there is also criticism that it increases carbon emissions.
“Companies have to be behind this,” said Jorg Weberndorfer, Minister Counsellor at the trade section of the EU Delegation to South Korea.
“You need companies who really believe in this and want to have this change. I think there should be an alliance between public authorities and companies.”
