Central Americans reading information they have been given about the asylum process while the queue up for a shower in the migrant hostel in Palenque. Paul Miranda. Some rights reserved.
Mexico is not
doing “nothing” to curb northward migration, as U.S. President Donald Trump
claims.
In this Q&A, Crisis Group's Latin America & Caribbean Program
Director Ivan Briscoe says Washington should help Mexico meet the challenge of
migrant and refugee flows from Central America, which are now concentrated in
its troubled southern states.
What
is the migration crisis in Mexico?
Poverty and violence in the Northern
Triangle of Central America (comprising El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras)
are forcing hundreds of thousands of Central Americans to flee each year to
Mexico. Most are heading north due to deep
economic insecurity.
But 39.2 per cent of Central Americans surveyed in Mexico by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in December 2016 said they
left their homes because they or their families were attacked, threatened,
extorted or pressured to join criminal gangs; many in such circumstances would
likely qualify as refugees, entitled to international protection under
applicable laws.
For the past two decades, the U.S. has
responded to the movement of people from Mexico and Central America with ever
stronger enforcement of border controls: it was in 2000 that the U.S. arrested
the largest ever number of undocumented migrants, close to two million, at its
southern boundary.
But, as a U.S. political issue and
matter of intense public concern, migration received a jolt in 2014 when a
surge of unaccompanied minors arrived from Central America.
During his
presidential campaign, U.S. President Donald Trump infamously said that Mexico
was “sending” to the U.S. people he described as “bringing drugs”, “bringing crime”
and “rapists”.
He promised to crack down on their entry into the U.S.,
including by building a wall on the border with Mexico and pressuring that
country to stem the northward flow. With his renewed anti-Mexican bombast in
early April, he seeks to make good on those pledges.
Mexico has seen an elevenfold increase in requests for refugee status from 2013 to 2017 (see graph).
Tighter border control, and fear
instilled by the Trump administration’s rhetoric, have reduced the numbers of
Central Americans reaching the Rio Grande – but swollen the numbers of those
staying in Mexico.
Mexico has seen an elevenfold increase in requests for
refugee status from 2013 to 2017 (see graph), mainly filed by Central
Americans.
As our forthcoming report on southern
Mexico makes clear, authorities in the Northern Triangle and Mexico are
struggling to respond adequately to a growing humanitarian emergency.
Faith-based and migrant defence organisations provide shelter and support on
the road to people in transit, including many children, but they are
chronically underfunded. They also must contend with harassment from migratory
and security authorities, as well as criminal groups.
Number of Refugee Requests Received and Refugee Status Granted in Mexico (2013-2017) Graph produced with information from the Mexican Commission for Assistance to Refugees (COMAR).
What is Mexico doing about the crisis?
Contrary to Trump’s irate tweets, Mexico
has bent to U.S. pressure to stifle the flow of Central Americans, in effect
becoming an enforcer of U.S. border control. In every year since 2015, Mexico
has deported more Central Americans than the U.S. has – and beefed up controls
at its own southern border.
The U.S. has supported these efforts
with $24 million in equipment and training assistance for southern border
control under the Mérida Initiative since 2007, as well as an additional $75
million in support for secure communications between agencies involved in
Mexico’s Southern Border Plan since 2014.
The boundary is guarded by a dozen
naval bases on rivers, and established security cordons that reach deep into
Mexican territory.
The plan stipulates that migration officials are to work
closely with the military, as well as federal and state police, to enforce
controls. As a result, far fewer Central Americans are reaching the U.S.
border, where arrests have dropped to levels unseen since 1971.
“ Xenophobia is now spreading across
southern Mexico as anger festers over the arrival of unprecedented numbers of
Central Americans in towns insufficiently equipped by the state to cope with
the influx.”
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto
favours continued involvement of the military in public security. He
promulgated an “internal security law” in December 2017 that enables the
participation of the military in domestic security operations, although its
implementation awaits the Supreme Court’s approval.
Human rights groups
fiercely oppose the law. Increasing militarisation raises qualms about possible
arbitrariness and human rights violations, and threatens to entrench a
counterproductive “iron fist” style of policing similar to that in El Salvador
and Honduras.
Mexico has proceeded down this path in
good part because it fears losing its privileged status as a partner in
commerce with the U.S. under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray has made it clear that his country’s critical role in migration control is a bargaining chip in trade negotiations.
In particular, Mexican leaders see tactical benefits to the long-standing
cooperation with Washington on migration: that cooperation sits at the core of
the government’s efforts to handle President Trump’s volatility and periodic
hostility.
Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray
has made it clear that his country’s critical role in migration control is a
bargaining chip in trade negotiations. Trump’s imposition of tariffs on steel,
aluminium, washing machines and solar panels in March proves his own
willingness to play hardball on trade.
This show of force could persuade the
Mexican government to comply more strongly with U.S. demands to toughen up on
undocumented migrants. The results of the 1 July presidential election in
Mexico, however, might alter these transactional dynamics.
What is happening to Central Americans
in transit through Mexico?
Central American migrants and refugees
are increasingly bottled up in southern Mexico. In 2017, 70.7 per cent of
foreigners arrested by Mexican migratory authorities were detained in four of
Mexico’s seven southern states: Chiapas, Oaxaca, Tabasco and Veracruz. The
Mexican Commission of Assistance to Refugees (COMAR) is overwhelmed by requests
for asylum. Private shelters and migratory stations (detention centres) are
overcrowded.
An array of criminals preys upon Central
Americans as they trek northward. MSF recounts that two thirds of those
surveyed reported being victims of violence during their trip toward the U.S.;
nearly one third of women surveyed said they had been sexually abused during
the journey.
Members of Central American street gangs
(maras) now follow the flow of vulnerable people into Mexico to extort
and menace them, including by spying on and threatening migrant shelters,
collaborating with Mexican organised crime.
Some of those fleeing are kidnapped
for ransom; others are forced into sexual exploitation; and all are compelled
to seek shelter in places that are unprepared and often unwilling to receive
them.
“ Supporting Mexico’s efforts to provide
greater protection should also be in the interests of the U.S., in that it may
help address security concerns that drive people to leave Mexico”
Xenophobia is now spreading across
southern Mexico as anger festers over the arrival of unprecedented numbers of
Central Americans in towns insufficiently equipped by the state to cope with
the influx.
Sensationalist media outlets and local politicians often depict the
beleaguered migrants and refugees as members of the feared maras, adding
stigmatisation and discrimination to their plight.
What should be done?
The U.S. government clearly is intent on
fortifying its own southern border. At the very least, it should compensate for
the pressure that it creates on Mexico’s institutions and resources to protect
the vulnerable people who are being bottled up there by supporting Mexican and
Northern Triangle authorities’ efforts to strengthen oversight of security
agencies and state institutions working on migrant and refugee issues, above
all the COMAR.
U.S. and EU technical assistance and capacity-building support
for under-resourced Central American consulates on the migration route through
Mexico would help ensure better protection for migrants and refugees,
especially at a time of deepening anti-migrant prejudice in southern states.
The U.S. and EU should intensify support for violence prevention and economic development in the southern Mexican locales where most Central Americans have arrived.
The U.S. and EU should intensify support
for violence prevention and economic development in the southern Mexican
locales where most Central Americans have arrived.
They should urgently assist
the three Northern Triangle countries and Mexico in developing new programs to
reintegrate deportees in their home countries and refugees abroad, including
through initiatives to give them access to health care, employment, education
and psychosocial support when necessary.
To spread the burden of the movement of
people, the U.S. and EU could also boost technical support to expand refugee
processing of Central Americans in neighbouring countries (mainly Belize and
Costa Rica), particularly minors, and ensure governments and NGOs in the region
provide adequate shelter to those awaiting decisions.
Financial and logistical support to
neighbouring countries such as Panama and Costa Rica, as well as to other Latin
American countries that agree to take a share of refugees, would help cushion
the impact of increasingly restrictive immigration policies in more traditional
destinations.
From a humanitarian perspective, these
steps would help Mexico cope responsibly with the increasing numbers of
vulnerable people who, despite its efforts in the south, continue to travel
over its borders.
Supporting Mexico’s efforts to provide greater protection
should also be in the interests of the U.S., in that it may help address
security concerns that drive people to leave Mexico and seek protection further
north.
_____
This interview was also published by Crisis Group.