Refugee Camps in Mexico for Central Americans

In criticizing The Times’ forthright editorial (May 22) on the Sanctuary Movement, L.D. Smithey asks (Letters, June 3) why Central Americans do not avail themselves of United Nations camps in southern Mexico. This assertion of “safe haven” in Mexico is also made by the U.S. State Department, but has no basis in fact.

Not being signatory to the 1951 U.N. Convention or 1967 Protocol on refugees, Mexico gives no recognition to refugee status. Its de facto policy is rather to discourage entry. Highway checkpoints have been extended, visa requirements tightened, and Central Americans are summarily expelled without judicial process. The best most can hope for is to remain hidden or to not get robbed or beaten during expulsion.

Obtaining legal status is next to impossible. A few who know the steps have obtained “refugee under mandate” status from the U.N. High Commissioner on Refugees in Mexico City, but this helps little for the Mexican government approved only 10 applications for political asylum in 1984.

Obtaining legal work status is a classic “Catch-22”: proof of substantial salary is required, yet work cannot be obtained without papers. Temporary visas are regularly extended only to those in the camps of southern Chiapas. But these camps, established after thousands of Maya Indians fled brutal military sweeps through their villages, are closed off to new refugees and are being moved to even more inaccessible regions farther from the Guatemalan border.

Knowing the reality faced by Central Americans in Mexico should temper the prevailing but simplistic view that “real” political refugees would stop in the first country they come to. Safe haven can be found, in Mexico as in the United States, but this is because individuals not governments have responded with compassion and commitment to tremendous human need.

JAMES LOUCKY

Los Angeles