"Around 1.3 million migrants are currently staying in Mexico. Significant migrant flows cross the country's territory every year. Apart from that, Mexico is subject to very strong pressure from the US government, [which urges it] to curb this flow… Migration-related problems have affected the country's economy directly. Partial blockade at US customs is one of the side effects, and we lose over $1.5 million daily in the city of Ciudad Juarez alone because of this," Pasaret said at the 5th edition of the annual Yalta International Economic Forum (YIEF).
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The lawmaker added that people usually had to wait for the possibility to enter Mexico via border crossing points for eight hours, stressing that this damaged trade.
He added that Mexico expected the migrant flow to increase significantly in 2019.
"We have exhausted our possibilities, so an alternative point of view should be taken into account. This is an international phenomenon in migrant policy, especially when it comes to bordering countries. It is necessary to integrate them [migrants] into the society. We face challenging problems in these situations," Pasaret said.
The YIEF is an annual business event and one of the four biggest economic forums held in Russia. The number of participants of the 5th edition of the YIEF, which started earlier on Thursday and will last through Saturday, has already exceeded 4,500 people. Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency is one of the general media partners of the event.
