Mexico to ask help to get vaccines for migrants in US

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico said Wednesday it has been trying to get help from non-profit groups or the U.S. government to get coronavirus vaccines for Mexican migrants working in the United States.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Mexico would keep trying “because it is a universal right.” Migrants without documents often have trouble accessing health services in the U.S.

Mexico’s point-man for the pandemic said the Mexican government cannot send vaccines to the United States. And Assistant Health Secretary Hugo López-Gatell said that attempts to work through civic groups have not been successful, because only health authorities have access to vaccines at this point.

“The Foreign Relations Department has been looking at the possibility of getting cooperation from the United States or some civic organization to obtain vaccines for Mexicans in the United States,” López-Gatell said. “Up to this point this has not been possible.”

“It should be made clear that the vaccines bought by the Mexican government cannot be transported to the United States ... for several legal reasons and health regulations,” he said.

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