Migrants experience extortion, kidnappings, and rape in Mexico

The Mixed Migration Centre has released a report titled “ Everyone’s prey: Kidnapping and extortionate detention in mixed migration .” The report shows alarming numbers and information and concludes that “Mexico arguably has the most extensive migrant kidnapping and extortion problem globally .”

According to the report, migrants experience extortion, kidnappings, illegal detentions, and sexual violence and that “some analysts have argued that an “epidemic of kidnapping in Mexico has been shaped in part by US immigration policies and is linked to the impact of the war on drugs .”

Furthermore, female migrants are particularly vulnerable during their journey through Mexico : “ Sexual abuse, torture, and killings are commonly reported, with some estimates claiming that 60 to 80 percent of all female migrants journeying through Mexico are raped and some forced into prostitution through trafficking.”

Nevertheless, there are other alarming situations: the abuses perpetrated against migrants are systematically underreported and ignored: “crimes against Central American migrants in Mexico – including kidnapping, rape, and murder – are among of the most systematically underreported large-scale human rights violations in the Western Hemisphere .”

On the other hand, Mexican authorities often work for criminal groups , something that puts migrants at risk: “a majority (approximately 65 percent) of all kidnappings happened in southeast Mexico and about 11 percent of those interviewed reported that state official s “colluded with the kidnappers during the kidnapping incidents”.

You can read the report here .

The Mixed Migration Center is a leading source for independent and high-quality data, information, research and analysis on mixed migration . Through the provision of credible evidence and expertise, the MMC aims to support agencies, policymakers and practitioners to make well-informed decisions, to positively impact global and regional migration policies , to contribute to protection and assistance responses for people on the move and to stimulate forward thinking in the sector responding to mixed migration.

Migrants: Exploited and dehumanized by tourists

gm