- The International Rescue Committee conducted a survey of 817 people found in Mexican border cities
A survey conducted by the non-governmental organization (NGO) International Rescue Committee (IRC) showed that 40% of migrant families say they have suffered violence against one of their members during their stay in Mexico.
The new report, published by the association on October 22, reflects interviews with 817 people located in the cities of Reynosa and Matamoros, in the northern state of Tamaulipas, and Tapachula, the largest city on the southern border.
According to these testimonies, the violence suffered by families includes extortion, kidnapping, physical assault, gender violence or arbitrary detention and family separation, the organization denounced.
Lack of food and medical care
The IRC also interviewed 150 migrants traveling through Mexico or waiting to cross into the United States, from whose testimonies it identified “that the priority needs for people on the move were food, the main concern for 64% of those surveyed.”
Additionally, respondents indicated the need for shelter (55%) and safe transportation (48%) follow.
In addition, they highlighted the difficulties in receiving medical care, mainly due to lack of adequate information, and the obstacles in obtaining documentation for their legal stay in the country.
Migration crisis
To date, thousands of displaced people continue to arrive in Mexico. Between January and July 2024, there were more than 700,000 arrests of people on the move, according to the IRC.
“There is no doubt that Mexico is the last mile for thousands of people who left their homes in search of safety, whether they try to find it here or in the United States. What is also true is that the organizations that provide protection and asylum services have been operating above their capacity for years,” said the director of IRC in Mexico, Rafael Velásquez, in a statement.
Velásquez in turn warned that, given the intensification of regional crises, such as the situation in Venezuela or Haiti, “we can only hope that more and more people in need of protection will arrive in the country.”
To avoid further deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Mexico, international actors must intensify their efforts to ensure that migration mechanisms are safe, fair and effective. “We call on the international community to increase its support and financing to strengthen humanitarian responses in Mexico,” the director demanded.
Finally, the IRC highlighted a series of “priority actions” to be implemented by Mexico to improve humanitarian assistance to migrants.
Among them, he listed mobile response teams and flexible assistance modalities; guidance and legal assistance for people or families who see Mexico as a possible safe destination, and psychosocial support for survivors of gender violence and other types of violence.
Recent events
On October 10, the Mexican government dispersed the thousands of migrants camping next to the Suchiate River, on the border with Guatemala, following the inauguration of the new president, Claudia Sheinbaum, and the new United States rules that allow asylum requests from the southern limit of Mexico.
The spaces where migrants spent the night around the border river now appear empty, according to the EFE news agency, after the Emerging Mobility Corridor established by the Mexican government to mobilize those who have an asylum appointment with the application to the border with the United States. CBP One.
Now, instead of saturating the tributary, foreigners go every day to the Regulation Office of the National Migration Institute (INM) in Tapachula, with a confirmed CBP One appointment, to obtain a Multiple Immigration Form and guarantee their regular stay in Mexican territory until reaching the northern border.
The situation has changed since Sheinbaum assumed the presidency on October 1, and because the United States Customs and Border Protection Office (CBP) has allowed migrants since August 23 to manage their asylum appointment in that country although are in Chiapas and Tabasco, states on the southern border of Mexico.
The authorities in Tapachula, the main city on the southern border of Mexico, told EFE that they have assisted 4,426 people and have issued a total of 3,965 Multiple Immigration Forms for humanitarian reasons.
So far, they have transported 509 people in 14 buses provided by the INM for free on a route that goes from Tapachula to cities on the northern border, such as Reynosa and Matamoros, in Tamaulipas.
With information from EFE
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