MEXICO CITY, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Mexico will allocate 60 million pesos (about 3.1 million U.S. dollars) to rehabilitate five migrant and migrant children holding centers on its southern border, the country's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.
The Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation approved on Tuesday of using the money to improve the migrant holding centers, said the Mexican Foreign Ministry's Undersecretary for Latin America and the Caribbean Maximiliano Reyes.
The work include "the refurbishment of common and private areas, and an improvement on the asylum application process," Reyes said.
Two of the three migrant centers to be rehabilitated are located in the municipalities of Tapachula and Tenosique, both bordering on Guatemala. The other is in the municipality of Acayucan, one of the crossing points for migrants seeking to enter the United States, he said.
Two migrant children holding centers to be rehabilitated are also located in Tapachula, he added.
"The effort that we are doing today and that we have been doing since the beginning of the year at some migrant holding centers responds to the necessity to have a greater and better capacity, and to have some centers dedicated to children," Reyes said.
The official said that the ministry will also seek help from other countries and international agencies to raise more funds for these works, given the unusually large number of immigrants entering the country.
According to Mexican authorities, the number of U.S.-bound migrants entering Mexico under 18 totaled 33,122 from January to June, up by 132 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2019.
