WOLA: Advocacy for Human Rights in the Americas

(AP Photo/Isabel Mateos)

16 Oct 2019 | News

Mexican Authorities Must Guarantee Protection of Extracontinental and Caribbean Migrants

Washington, DC—Today, the Citizens’ Council of Mexico’s National Migration Institute (Consejo Ciudadano del Instituto Nacional de Migración, CCINM) released a statement expressing its concern for the situation of extracontinental and Caribbean migrants at Mexico’s southern border. In the context of growing humanitarian and security concerns for these migrants, the Council urged Mexican migration authorities to develop an appropriate, humanitarian-focused response that guarantees migrants’ human rights.

“As seen in the past, whenever migration policy becomes more restrictive, the human cost rises considerably… When access to regularization is cut off, more people fall victim to corruption as well as abuses by smugglers and traffickers. As a result, the vulnerability of undocumented persons in Mexico increases,” reads the statement. “This is exactly what we saw on October 11 in Puerto Arista, Chiapas, when a group of people opted to migrate irregularly by sea, resulting in the fatal death of at least two individuals from Cameroon.”

The statement calls on the Mexican government to make use of the various tools at its disposal to respond to this crisis and provide assistance to victims. According to the Council, this includes granting certain migrants temporary stay in the country based on humanitarian reasons. “The Citizens’ Council urges the National Migration Institute to provide the necessary assistance to the survivors of these unfortunate events and their families,” reads the statement. “In the same vein, we urge the Institute to consider granting the ‘Stay for Humanitarian Reasons’—outlined in the Law on Migration—to the survivors of the shipwreck and other extracontinental migrants stranded at the southern border.”

Click here to read the statement (in Spanish).