Mexican migrant shelters brace for coronavirus

Mexican migrant shelters brace for coronavirus

As coronavirus cases rise on both sides of the border, authorities in Ciudad Juarez must manage the public health challenge with limited funds.

Libby Hogan reports.

In overcrowded migrant shelters in Mexico medical advice for social distancing against the coronavirus is almost impossible.

Along the US border, shelter director in Ciudad Juarez, Juan Fierro, says if a coronavirus infected migrant tested positive in his shelter it would present a crisis on several fronts.

Fierro worries about receiving new migrants who might infect others because he has no space to isolate them.

The shelter is already down to its last two bottles of antibacterial gel and has run out of toilet paper.

DIRECTOR AT BUEN PASTOR SHELTER, JUAN FIERRO, SAYING: "Shelters don't have that capacity, an area for isolation.

So, I don't know if they (authorities) will help us to create a space for isolation." Ciudad Juarez is ground zero for the Trump administration's 'Remain in Mexico' policy.

Under those rules asylum seekers are sent to Mexico to await their U.S. hearings.

Shelter directors running crowded facilities are scrambling to improve hygiene and keep migrants safe.

And for those stateless and struggling to look for work and food to eat the near future looks dire.

(SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) BRAZILIAN MIGRANT, RONALDO, SAYING: "Yes, it's very sad because with coronavirus we don't know what we are going to do here.

There is no medicine, no doctors.

I don't know what is going to happen now." Adding to the pressure, U.S. President Donald Trump is considering immediately returning any foreigners caught at the border to Mexico.

That could overwhelm Ciudad Juarez and other frontier cities already in a desperate position to cope with the crisis.