In July, Joshua Craze wrote about how governments are using Covid-19 as a pretext for a crackdown on migration. One victim of this trend is a 34-year-old Pakistani man who has spent the last month in a Mexican airport due to restrictive and arbitrary border enforcement.

Farooq Muhammad had been living in Mexico for two years on a work permit before he traveled to Pakistan in February for what was intended to be a monthlong trip to visit relatives in the city of Multan. Due to Covid-19 travel restrictions, his return to Mexico was delayed until September, by which time his work permit had expired. When he finally managed to fly to Mexico City, he expected to renew his documentation upon arrival, as is normally permissible under Mexican law.

However, when Muhammad arrived at the Benito Juarez International Airport on September 9, authorities refused him entry into the country, and detained him without access to a lawyer. Muhammad, who does not speak Spanish or English, has said he was not given any reason why his entry was denied, or even provided with a translator. The official explanation for his detention is that he was the subject of a “migratory alert,” an opaque Mexican legal procedure for flagging passports on grounds the state is not required to disclose.

Muhammad has accused the Mexican authorities of attempting to pressure him into getting on a return flight, and twice physically assaulting him when he refused.