The United States and Guatemala launched a website Monday where refugees and migrants can request U.S. visa appointments in the latest bid to curb illegal migration, the Central American country announced.
Dubbed "Movilidad Segura" (Safe Mobility), the program will last six months, to "promote safe, orderly and regular migration and access to protection mechanisms," the Guatemalan foreign ministry said in a statement.
Backed by the International Organization for Migration and the High Commissioner for Refugees, two U.N. agencies, the program seeks to shield "people from exposing themselves to scams and dangers" such as human traffickers, said the statement.
People from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua will be eligible to use the new web page to seek an appointment for a migrant visa or refugee status application at one of several regional processing centers.
At the end of April, as COVID-era emergency health protocols that had tightened the U.S.-Mexico border for more than three years expired, Washington announced it would open centers in Guatemala and Colombia to screen would-be migrants and refugees.
The centers are part of an approach by President Joe Biden's administration to walk a political tightrope by expanding access to legal routes into the United States while also making it more difficult to claim asylum at ports of entry.
Asylum claims must in most cases be lodged before arriving at the border — or migrants risk rapid expulsion.
In addition to being the country of origin for thousands of people who migrate to the United States each year, Guatemala is also a transit point for people fleeing poverty or violence in their own countries en route north.
The U.S. Department of State said in a statement last month the United States had welcomed six times as many refugees from Latin America and the Caribbean in 2022 as the previous year and was "on track to more than double those arrivals in FY 2023."
