Latin America: A Path for Syrians to America

Five Syrian men with stolen Greek passports were arrested in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa on Nov. 18. The next day, two Syrian families turned themselves over to U.S. immigration authorities at the U.S.-Mexico border in Loredo, Texas. Three days later, another group of Syrian refugees turned themselves over to U.S. immigration authorities in Loredo. These encounters have contributed to speculation that Central America is becoming a popular transit corridor for Syrian refugees to the United States. Since the beginning of the Syrian Civil War in 2011, at least 40 Syrian refugees have been detained in Mexico for trying to enter the United States illegally. However, despite fears to the contrary, none of these refugees, thus far, have known links to terrorism. Anibal Baca, a police spokeswoman in Honduras, announced that the Syrians arrested earlier this month in Tegucigalpa were “normal Syrians” seeking refuge from the Syrian Civil War.

Immigration of this sort reflects a global trend of refugees taking long detours to get to the United States. According to The Guardian, refugees from Nepal, Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Pakistan have also increasingly attempted to enter the United States via Mexico. This immigration is primarily driven by the ease of gaining legal entry into Latin America relative to entering the United States.

Many Latin American states have offered to accept quotas of Syrian refugees from as few as 100 families in Chile to as many as 20,000 refugees in Venezuela, The Guardian reports. Argentina currently offers special humanitarian visas to Syrians fleeing the conflict which make them eligible for permanent residence after three years. Since 2013, Brazil has allowed Syrian refugees to enter the country even before applying for refugee status, which it has granted to 2,000 Syrians so far.

According to the New York Times, the United States has accepted only 1,854 Syrian refugees in 2015. This number reflects 0.04 percent of the more than 4 million Syrian refugees currently registered under the U.N. High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). The United States government has not been open to approving requests from Middle Eastern asylum-seekers, and it has attained a reputation as such. Syrian refugees denied entry into the United States commonly seek entry to Latin America, taking advantage of their lax immigration policies before traveling northward for a better shot at crossing the border. According to the UNHCR, the number of globally registered Syrian refugees has increased 134 percent over the past year. With the Syrian Civil War still ongoing, the Syrian refugee crisis is likely to worsen. Though U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced the U.S. would accept more refugees next year, the U.S. can expect continued attempts of Syrian refugees to enter the United States via its southern border.