HRW decries ‘inadequate’ asylum policies in face of Venezuela, Haiti crises

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 AFP

Flawed asylum policies in the Americas are forcing thousands of migrants from troubled countries like Venezuela and Haiti into a perilous US-bound jungle crossing, Human Rights Watch said in a report Wednesday.

Analyzing the migration policies of Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, and Peru, the report found “governments in the Americas offer inadequate access to asylum and other forms of international protection for people fleeing ongoing human rights crises.”

This left migrants with no option but to pursue illegal and dangerous exit routes, it said.

In particular, many are “forced… into the dangerous Darien Gap” — an inhospitable jungle area between Colombia and Panama “where they are exposed to abuses, including sexual violence.”

More than 700,000 migrants and asylum seekers, the report said, had crossed the “gap” in the last 18 months.

Fleeing violence, persecution and humanitarian catastrophes at home, they included over 477,000 Venezuelans, 60,000 Ecuadorans, and 41,000 Haitians.

The report expressed concern that a recent migrant deal between Panama and the United States could worsen the situation.

Under the deal, Washington pledged $6 million for migrant repatriations from the Central American nation in the hopes of reducing irregular crossings at its own southern border — a contentious issue in a US election year.

But “given Panama’s inadequate and under-resourced asylum system, large-scale removal of asylum seekers could violate Panama’s legal obligation” not to return people to countries where they are likely to experience abuse, said the HRW.

“It also means that the US would shirk its responsibilities by outsourcing its migration controls to a country with demonstrably less capacity to provide full and fair consideration of asylum claims.”

– Don’t ‘stand idly by’ –

The report called for governments in the Americas to take urgent steps to expand access to asylum and meaningful social and economic integration opportunities.

In Latin America, such shortages “have left hundreds of thousands unable to remake their lives, forcing many to head north.”

More than seven million people have fled Venezuela as the South American country’s economy collapsed, with GDP contracting by 80 percent in a decade under President Nicolas Maduro.

After July 28 elections the opposition says it can prove Maduro stole, 43 percent of respondents to a survey said they were also considering leaving — including 1.5 million who said they would do so by year-end, according to the report.

Haiti, for its part, has seen about 600,000 people internally displaced in the first six months of 2024 as violent criminal groups vie for power in a vacuum left by a political crisis.

Ecuador, too, has seen a surge in emigration fueled by a sharp rise in violent crime driven by drug trafficking.

The HRW said governments should create a region-wide temporary protection system granting Venezuelans and Haitians legal status for fixed but renewable terms. 

They should also create a mechanism to determine the states responsible for examining asylum claims and protecting refugees.

“Governments in the Americas should not stand idly by as the crises in Venezuela and Haiti deepen,” said HRW executive director Tirana Hassan.

“They should respect and promote human rights domestically and grant those fleeing meaningful opportunities to obtain protection and remake their lives.”