U.N. refugee agency to close four offices in Mexico amid funding crunch

By Lizbeth Diaz

The U.N. refugee agency in Mexico has closed four offices in the country and laid off 190 people due to the "serious funding crisis" facing the agency, the head of UNHCR in Mexico said on Tuesday, after U.S. President Donald Trump slashed overseas aid.

"UNHCR has had to make very serious decisions this year," Giovanni Lepri, UNHCR's representative in Mexico, said in a message to reporters, explaining that the agency's operations in Mexico have lost 60% of their budget.

Mexico was last year among the top 10 countries with the highest number of asylum applications in the world, with nearly 80,000 applications registered by the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (COMAR), UNHCR said.

The majority of applicants were from Cuba, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, and Venezuela.

The closure of the offices, including two offices in the southern Mexican cities of Palenque and Tenosique, and a third office in the large western city of Guadalajara, has raised concerns among migrant activists.

"This will have a very big impact on migrant communities," said Jose Maria Garcia, director of the Juventud 2000 shelter in the northern Mexican city of Tijuana.

UNHCR's operations in Mexico have been heavily dependent on U.S. funding, which has been hit by Trump's global funding freeze.

On January 20, hours after taking office, Trump ordered a pause in foreign aid to review if it was aligned with his foreign policy priorities. Trump also enacted a sweeping crackdown at the U.S.-Mexico border, aimed at slowing migration into the United States.

The cuts to UNHCR have also impacted migrant shelters run by the Catholic Church that rely on the U.N. agency for funding said, Julio Lopez, director of the Scalabrini Foundation of Mexico.

"The shelters have seen their budgets reduced and, consequently, have reduced programs and projects," he said.

Nevertheless, he added: "the shelters continue to operate and support migrants."