Migration

Within the project “Campaign of political incidence at the international level for the protection of human rights defenders from Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras”, presented by PBI Catalunya and financed by the Provincial Deputation of Barcelona (DIBA), the journalists Xavier Sulé and Marta Saiz are publishing a series of articles resulting from extensive conversations with human rights defenders accompanied by PBI in Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras.

Last Thursday, July 2, PBI organized a virtual seminar on the defense of the rights of migrants in the time of COVID-19 in collaboration with Madrid’s University Carlos III, and for which we had the presence of the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights of Migrants from the United Nations, Professor Felipe González Morales.

In the north of the country, in the city of Chihuahua, you will find Uno de Siete Migrando (One Out of Seven Migrating) an organisation that provides advice and accompaniment to migrants, refugees and displaced people in the state of Chihuahua.

In September, PBI provided international accompaniment to civil society organizations who defend the rights of migrants in in the state of Coahuila and who face risks due to their work. According to the report by the Citizens Council of the National Migration Institute (INM), in July 2017 the migrant population was subject to “violence and the excessive use of force by INM agents and other security forces in control and detention operatives” and crimes committed against migrants are met with impunity.

In a press conference, the Network for Documentation of Migrant Defense Organizations (REDODEM) presented the Report, “Migrants in Mexico: traveling on a path of violence.” In this report, the more than 20 organizations that make up the Network – including the Juan Gerardi Human Rights Center and the Brothers on the Path Migrant Shelter — both accompanied by PBI – highlighted the problem of “human mobility due to violence” and demanded respect for the rights of the migrant population in transit and to put an end to the criminalization of people who defend and promote these rights.

In the last few months the José María Morelos y Pavón Human Rights Center – an organization accompanied by PBI – has noted on several occasions the persistent problem of forced displacement in Guerrero, especially in the communities of Chilapa de Álvarez and Zitlala.

According to the CNDH, in recent years the flow of migrants that transit through Mexico have increased, and migration patterns have become more complex. To respond to the needs of undocumented migrants that pass through the municipality of Chahuites, in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, in 2014 the priest Alejandro Solalinde Guerra founded the Center for Attention and Humanitarian Aid for Migrants as an extension of the Brothers on the Path Migrant Shelter, in Ixtepec.

On 17 March, the Saltillo Migrant House participated in a thematic hearing requested by several human rights organizations entitled “Mexico: Applicants for Asylum and Refugee Status” convened by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in Washington DC. During this hearing, representatives of Mexican civil society and the Federal Government discussed the current human rights situation of people who requested asylum and refugee status in the country.