TIJUANA (Border Report) — The head of Mexico’s Human Rights Commission visited with some of the 1,500 migrants now living at a campsite just south of the Mexico-California border on Monday.
Raúl Arturo Ramírez said he visited the camp to see how the migrants were being cared for and whether local, state and federal agencies were providing necessities for those at the camp.
The camp has been growing in population for almost two months ever since President Joe Biden began allowing asylum-seekers with pending cases to cross the border.
Most of the people at the camp don’t have cases and have not been given a chance to ask for asylum. They believe that by staying at the camp near the border, they will be first in line if and when the border were to open.
City officials have declared the site as unsafe for occupants stating the site is a “focal point for contagious illnesses.”
“We are looking for strategies that will always benefit our migrant brothers and sisters,” Ramírez said.
Recently, showers and portable bathrooms were installed in the area, which has no running water or other utilities.
But some migrants have complained the conditions are deplorable, saying the city doesn’t maintain the showers nor the bathrooms that were installed only after Ramírez’s agency made the recommendation a few weeks back.
The group insisted all three levels of government do more to help the migrants, especially the children and teens living there.
It not only asked for bathrooms and showers, but for healthy food alternatives, disposable diapers, more medical care, ambulances on standby and more sanitizer and facemasks.
After touring the campsite, Ramirez requested a multi-agency group made up of doctors, psychologists, social workers, lawyers and others be included to provide more attention for the children.
Ramirez is also requesting education programs be instituted to educate migrants on the need to maintain a safe social distance to practice other COVID-19 preventive measures.
There was no immediate response from the city of Tijuana or the state of Baja California about whether they plan on following up on the requests made my the human rights agency.