Mexican authorities have converted a sports complex near the U.S. border into a shelter to house the wave of thousands of Ukrainian refugees fleeing war-torn Ukraine and seeking to enter the United States.
Roughly 1,700 Ukrainian refugees have descended on Tijuana, Mexico, in recent weeks hoping to claim asylum to enter the U.S., according to Mexican authorities. Hundreds of these Ukrainian asylum-seekers in need of housing were transferred to the temporary shelter less than a 2-mile walk to the San Ysidro Port of Entry, Mexican officials said on Monday.
“They will continue to arrive,” Enrique Lucero, Tijuana’s migration affairs director, said on Monday, according to a report.
Lucero said 400 Ukrainians, 30% of them children, arrived in Tijuana on Saturday and Sunday after entering the country via airports in Cancun and Mexico City.
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Tijuana has three ports of entry connecting Mexico to California.
The sports complex has previously been used to house migrants from the Central American caravans arriving in Tijuana. It has the capacity for about 500 people and is complete with showers, bathrooms, and internet.
Tijuana’s 25 other shelters are housing about 3,000 migrants from other countries waiting for Title 42 to expire on May 23, according to Lucero. The rule allows agents to turn away immigrants to avoid overcrowding and the spread of disease at border facilities.
Between 300 and 400 Ukrainians per day are being processed at the border by U.S. immigration authorities, according to Lucero.
Since before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, thousands from both nations have fled to Mexico in the hope of crossing into the U.S., most with tourist visas.
At least 30,000 Russians and 10,000 Ukrainians arrived in Mexico at the start of the year, up from the averages of previous years, according to a report.
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The Biden administration has said it will welcome at least 100,000 Ukrainian refugees and that those with families in the country will receive priority.
The United Nations said on Saturday that over 4 million Ukrainians have fled the country since Russia’s invasion.
