Due to the growing concerns of the congestion and lack of order in the migrant camp, the non-profit Global Response Management decided to set up a clinic in the area to ensure that the population is prepared against the coronavirus.

It might take them months before they can proceed with their U.S. immigration trial under the Remain in Mexico policy by President Donald Trump known as Migrant Protection Protocols.

Clinic at the border

Executive director of the GRM Helen Perry says that they are yet to confirm any patients confirmed with COVID-19 in the migrant camp in Matamoros. However, they isolated two patients who were exhibiting symptoms of the disease. The test results are due in days or weeks.

She added that they were strengthening safety and security measures in the encampment because they were situated near hotspots in Matamoros.

According to Perry, GRM has operated in countries like the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen. In Mexico, she believes that they have the capability and the capacity to treat the patients, but it was only a matter of coin.

Currently, they had five full-time medical workers and a handful of volunteers to help with the services. Many of them are also seeking asylum in the United States.

One doctor in particular, Dairon Elisondo Rojas, decided to flee to the U.S. after becoming part of the Cuban doctors going on medical missions in Venezuela, which he learned was filled with political agenda.

When he criticized the Cuban government for supporting the regime of Venezuela's shady Socialist Party, he was banned from practicing medicine in his own country. He then thought about moving to the U.S. instead, and now he is awaiting his trial in court for the immigration, which was postponed to late in June.

Rojas became the encampment's first doctor. In an interview with Al Jazeera, he said that he would treat around 40 patients in the temporary shelters.

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Migrants at Matamoros

Executive director of the Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley Sister Norma Pimentel said that the camp was a short-term solution. Asylum seekers must be able to find lawyers to represent them in court to stand a chance in migrating into the United States.

Whatever future the migrants at Matamoros hoped for seemed incredibly difficult at best. It seemed unlikely that Trump would lift immigration laws, and some lawyers predict that only one percent out of all their claims to move into the U.S. could be approved.

In the month prior, the doctors said that the makeshift clinic was opened to initially treat and test for COVID-19 patients at the encampment. Of the 60 people they tested, all of the results came back negative.

They regularly checked temperatures at random, and prescribed vitamins and medicine for patients to improve the health of immunocompromised patients. Other people at high risk would check in every day.

Part of the GRM's job was to launch education campaigns for the children. They also distributed medical supplies like masks to as many people as they could. Even in the limited space at the encampment, they managed to build sinks so that people would be able to wash their hands at the site.