This Quarterly Mixed Migration Update (QMMU) covers the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region. The core countries of focus for this region are the countries currently affected by the Venezuelan crisis, including Colombia, Brazil, Peru and Ecuador, in addition to the Caribbean islands. Concerning northern movements to the United Sates, this QMMU covers Mexico and Central American countries. Depending on the quarterly trends and migration-related updates, more attention may be given to some of the countries over the rest.

The QMMUs offer a quarterly update on new trends and dynamics related to mixed migration and relevant policy developments in the region. These updates are based on a compilation of a wide range of secondary (data) sources, brought together within a regional framework and applying a mixed migration analytical lens. Similar QMMUs are available for all MMC regions.

Key Updates

Returns of refugees and migrants to Venezuela in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. As of May 2020, more than 5 million Venezuelan refugees and migrants had left their country of origin; however, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused small return flows of Venezuelans from across the Andean region toward Venezuela since March, reaching approximately 75,000 to date. Serious concerns about stigmatization of returnees and lack of food and healthcare in Venezuela persist.

Restrictive stay-at-home orders in the North of Central America (NCA), including El Salvador,Honduras and Guatemala, limit mobility, while deportations continue. Border closures across Central America, along with restrictive quarantine measures, have limited mobility within and between countries. Despite these border closures, deportations and forced returns from the United States and Mexico to NCA countries continued, including of COVID-positive individuals.

More than 40,000 summary expulsions of refugees and migrants from the U.S. to Mexico under public health order. A public health order issued on March 21 by the U.S. government in light of COVID-19 permits the summary expulsion of people on the move from the U.S. to northern Mexico, with virtually no screening for international protection needs; since then, more than 40,000 incidents of expulsion have taken place. Meanwhile, refugees and migrants subject to the Remain in Mexico policy face extended wait times for resumptions of immigration court hearings in the U.S.

Thousands of African, Haitian and Cuban people on the move stuck in Panama during the COVID-19 pandemic. Border closures across Central America due to COVID-19 have paused movements on migration routes from the Caribbean and from other continents; at least 1,900 refugees and migrants from African and Caribbean countries remain in reception centers in the Darin province, Panama, and hundreds of refugees and migrants in southern Honduras attempted onward travel towards North America in late June.

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Quarterly Mixed Migration Update Latin America and the Caribbean, Quarter 2, 2020 - World - ReliefWeb