Mexico City, September 11 (teleSUR-RHC)-- Mexico has decided to join the Latin American trend to give shelter to Syrian refugees, according to a statement on Thursday by the Foreign Minister Claudia Ruiz Massieu.

Ruiz Massieu said that Mexico has sent resources to international organizations to aid the refugees at camps in Jordan and Lebanon. However, she did not revealed the amounts or organizations.

Newspaper El Financiero reported that the NGO Project Habesha was bringing 30 Syrian students to Mexico and they would be financed by private universities and private donations.

But the foreign minister said this was a topic that government was debating, but that it “still isn't determined. We are exploring the possibilities, and I repeat, Mexico maintains its conviction that we should find solutions to the crisis that Syria is living at the time through bilateral engagement.”

The minister refused to say how much money Mexico had contributed to the refugee crisis, but she said, “Mexico has sent money via the U.N. refugee agency and the UNICEF and the International Red Cross to ensure that the refugee camps in Jordan and Lebanon have the proper conditions to house refugees.”

She also said that, “Mexico has a long tradition of opening its doors to refugees. We did it during the Franco era in Spain, during the dictatorships in South America, and we did most recently in 2010 when we received Haitians displaced by the earthquake.” 

But while the Mexican government analyzes whether it will or will not take in Syrian refugees, Project Habesha has announced that the first Syrian refugee in Mexico will arrive next week.
   
According to the Mexican government's website on refugees, Mexico received about 4,500 asylum requests in 2013 and 2014.  Of those, only about 700 were approved.

Mexican news website Animal Politico said the few people that are accepted for refugee status in Mexico are left to fend off for themselves.

“Once they receive approval to remain in Mexico, they are handed a document that is useless when it comes to opening bank accounts and so on,” the website said.  Basically, it added, those in Mexico are “ignored and discriminated against.”
        
Venezuela has offered to take in 20,000 Syrian refugees.  Chile has offered safe haven for 100 Syrian families. Uruguay has already taken in Syrian refugees and has announced it will accept more. The United States, one of the main countries responsible for the chaos, violence and refugees in Syria, has only accepted 1,500.