Jessica Fagan
February 23, 2010
The rights of Refugees an Internally Displaced Person and Border Control
Guatemala does not have a position on refugees and internally displaced persons because
most of our citizens flee from our country. We don’t take in other idps and refugees because we
can barely keep our own in due to our economy.
As of May 2006 there were an estimated one million internally displaced persons and
Guatemala. In 2009, there were 6,000 refugees accounted for.1 Most of the refugees and idps
are Mayan people.2 Guatemala is in deep repression right now which forces most of the people
left with no food, shelter, or no jobs. In 2007 500,000 families did not have enough land to meet
their basic needs.3 So they flee to other countries due to the support of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). It has been proven that the UNHCR has built camps in
Mexico that housed some 46,000 Guatemalans to show their support. They where building more
on top of that to help the other 15,000 that were living in Mexico outside of the camps.4 We
really don’t have money for border control to keep our people in.
When they migrate to Mexico, they tend to flee to the United States too. But the United
States does not want to co-operate in ways our government wants them to. We proposed to the
US to give our emigrants in their country the opportunity to be granted TPS status.5 Usually
when they grant someone TPS status, they have had some huge natural disaster, or something
along those lines. There is an estimated 6-12 thousand Guatemala emigrants fleeing to America
each year, but send back around 2,500 in a year who are mostly gang members and drug dealers
that run down our economy even more.6 The people that leave Guatemala are 2.21 people for
every thousand people there are, Guatemala’s population as of 2009 was an estimated 14
million.7 That’s about 6,334 refugees to the 14 million citizens in Guatemala a year.
1
UNHCR. “2010 Regional Operations Profile-Latin America”. UNHCR. 2/2/2010 <http://www.unhcr.org/cgibin/texis/vtx/page?page=49e492616>.
2
IDMC. “violence and inequality still blocking solutions for IDPs”. IDMC.
2/5/2010<http:/www.internaldisplacement.org/8025708F004CE90B/(httpCountries)/ADC95A48885DA5B3802570
A7004CF4E3?OpenDocument&count=10000&expandview>.
3
IDMC
4
Migration World Magazine. “refugees crisis”. Center for Migration Studies of New York, Inc.. 2/5/2010
<http://www.faqs.org/abstracts/Sociology-and-social-work/Refugee-crisis-and-ethnic-conflicts-Yugoslav-refugeescrisis-Europes-worst-since-40s.html>.
5
Smith, James. “Guatemala: Economic Migrants Replace Political Refugees”. Migration policy institute. 2/5/2010
<http://www.migrationinformation.org/Profiles/display.cfm?ID=392>
6
Smith
7
Cia.”the world factbook”. Cia.2/5/2010 <https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-worldfactbook/geos/gt.html>.
Guatemala has tried to get our people fair work opportunities in the countries they have
fled to. We also try to get them TPS status in America which allows them to work temporarily to
earn money and deport them back here to Guatemala after so much time there. Maybe now that
we had this huge earth quake, the US will be willing to grant us the TPS status. The money they
get there allows them to come back to Guatemala with better living environment when their
deported.