Good Practices

In December 2021, the Government of Belize announced the implementation of a comprehensive amnesty exercise scheduled for 2022-2023. The Belize Amnesty Program is aimed at providing asylum-seekers and irregular migrants an alternative pathway to obtaining a permanent residence status, irrespective of their current asylum or migratory status.

The Mexican Commission for Refugee Aid (COMAR), in coordination with local authorities and UNHCR support, has strengthened its response capacity in recent years to register and process cases of people in need of international protection, given the gradual increase in the number of asylum applications in the country since 2014.

Canada and Mexico have agreed to implement activities developed under the Regional Asylum Capacity-building Initiative (RACBI) through the framework of the ACSG Mechanism to strengthen asylum capacity in Mexico on refugee issues.

The Mexican authorities, The Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (COMAR), the National Human Rights Commission, and the Federal Public Defender´s Office (IFDP), with the support of UNHCR, have worked on developing various information materials for asylum-seekers and refugees. (In Spanish).

In 2019, the General Directorate of Migration and Foreign Affairs began a process of decentralizing its refugee services by opening an office in Upala. This process became relevant in light of the border closure decreed at the beginning of the pandemic produced by COVID-19. Costa Rican asylum authorities began implementing the refugee status determination procedure in border areas. (In Spanish).

Mexican legislation provides for the granting of complementary protection. This form of international protection is granted to a foreigner who has not been recognized as a refugee according to the law (Mexican law provides for both the universal definition of the term refugee and the expanded definition) but it is considered that their return could put their life at risk or could leave them in danger of being subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.

The Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (COMAR) implements merged procedures applying the expanded definition proposed by the Cartagena Declaration, with a view to implementing a more agile, efficient and quality refugee status determination (RSD) procedures. These procedures speed up the registration and eligibility stages for certain profiles of applicants in vulnerable conditions and with a high inclusion rate.

COMAR has different representative offices that carry out the refugee status determination (RSD) procedure. To manage the increase in asylum applications fairly and efficiently, there was a need to homogenize decision-making in the different COMAR offices, together with the need to streamline the eligibility process.