More Ukrainian refugees arrive at the US-Mexico border

Biden administration will end Trump-era Title 42 that has closed the US-Mexico border to most asylum seekers

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Hundreds of Ukrainians are camping in the border city of Tijuana, Mexico, hoping to seek asylum in the US, a dramatic increase in arrivals just days after the Biden administration said the US would accept up to 100,000 Ukrainians fleeing from war.

Many of the Ukrainians escaping the Russian invasion of their home country have flown to the US-Mexico border hoping officials will allow them in so they can reunite with US relatives or friends.

People are spread out on blankets and lawn chairs alongside overstuffed suitcases on a patch of grass near the international port of entry. Some are sleeping in tents and under tarps.

US volunteers in neon vests - some Ukrainian-Americans who travelled to Tijuana after hearing about the arriving refugees - are collecting names on a handwritten waitlist to keep track of arrivals.

While some 600 Ukrainians are camping near the border entry around 500 more are staying in hotels in the city, said Enrique Lucero, Tijuana's migration affairs director, citing the list kept by volunteers. About 40 per cent of the people are children, he added.

Mr Lucero said around 100 Ukrainians are being allowed to cross into the US daily. US Customs and Border Protection said data on the number of Ukrainians who entered the US in March would be available in coming weeks.

The number of people at the southwest border is still small compared to more than 3.8 million Ukrainians who have fled to nearby countries in Europe since the Februar 24 invasion, which the Russian government calls a "special military operation".

In response to the exodus — the biggest refugee crisis in Europe since World War Two — US President Joe Biden pledged last week to accept some 100,000 Ukrainians into the US through various legal pathways.

But some families desperate to leave have resorted to traveling through a string of countries to the southern border, after being denied US visas, or told to wait, at US embassies abroad.

While Ukrainians and Russians have been arriving at the US-Mexico border since before the conflict erupted, now people are coming "very quickly", said Julia Neusner, an attorney with the New York-based non-profit advocacy group Human Rights First.

On average, Ukrainians are waiting about one day from the time they are put on the list compiled by volunteers until they can cross into the US, Ms Neusner said.

Mykhaila and her daughter from Loubny, central Ukraine, travelled by train to the Ukrainian city of Lviv then took a bus to Medyka on the Polish border, before walking across. Photo: DEC

Women hold hands at the Medyka border crossing point, through which thousands of Ukrainian refugees have passed. Photo: DEC

Angelika, 27, and her daughter Diana, 4, from Khmelnytskyi in Ukraine arrive at a reception centre on the outskirts of Przemysl, Poland. Photo: DEC

Maria, 38, from Chernihiv, left Ukraine with a friend. They came to the Romanian border to wait for another friend before crossing. Photo: Panos Pictures

Ukrainian Red Cross staff and volunteers are providing food and other basic necessities to about 8,000 people sheltering in an underground station in Kyiv. Photo: Tebukhukhov Maksym

Kristina wipes away tears at Lwowska reception centre on the outskirts of Przemysl, Poland. Photo: DEC

Ira, 45, and her daughter Olena, 12, outside a transit centre in Przemysl, Poland. Photo: Adrienne Surprenant

Veronika feeds her son Aleksander at the temporary refugee station in Medyka, eastern Poland. Photo: DEC

Two weeks ago, according to a Reuters witness, around 15 Ukrainians per day were arriving at the Tijuana border and being immediately waved through.

While Ukrainians are being ushered into the US, border agents have told Russians, Mexicans, Central Americans and migrants from other countries to stay put, citing a pandemic-era border expulsion policy known as Title 42 that has closed the US-Mexico border to most asylum seekers.

On Friday, the Biden administration announced it will end the expulsion policy in late May, as US health officials said it was no longer needed to protect public health.

Inna Levien — originally from Belarus — said she and other Russian-speaking members of her mothers' group in Orange County, California, headed down to Tijuana earlier this week to help Ukrainian refugees, many of whom speak Russian.

She said there is no running water at a local bus stop where some women and children are sleeping and children are falling ill.

"Vomiting, diarrhoea, they are so stressed out, they are dehydrated," she said. "They have this unrest inside."

One six-year-old girl told Ms Levien she was praying to protect her father who stayed behind to defend Ukraine because it was her "job" to be his "guardian angel”.