The Work of Non-Governmental

Organizations in Supporting
Migrants and their
Families in Mexico

May 15th, 2013

 This work begins as a response

to the increasing need

for humanitarian help
in transit communities
of immigrants, mainly
from Central America,
particularly Honduras.
Given these needs, women and men
organized to provide food, clothing and
accommodation, in poor conditions and with the
state prosecution on charges of trafficking.
 Doña Conchi case
Concepción Moreno Arteaga from

El Ahorcado Community, in the state of Queretaro,

was violently arrested in march 9, 2005 by the
Federal Police of Investigations while she was
feeding a group of Honduran migrants, who had
reached the door of his house.
With false evidence and testimony she was
sentenced to six years in prison with
charges for human trafficking, from which
she served two years and a half, after her
case was taken by Pro Centre of Human
Rights, they obtained acquittal on
September 3, 2007.
 Thanks to a
partnership of
several
organizations the
information was
made public to
denounce the
criminalization of
humanitarian aid.
On April 30, 2008, were repealed Articles 119 to 124 of the
General Population Law, which considered irregular
migration as a crime, reducing it to administrative
offense, which declined prosecution by the state to those
who provided humanitarian help to migrants.
 However…

Persecution to shelters

and organizations

working on behalf of

migrants continued with

a new face...
Organised crime made of abduction of
migrants a very profitable source of
income of about 25 MDD per month.

According to National
Human Rights
Commision, in 2010 there
were 11,333 migrants,
victims of abduction in
Mexico.
The abduction issue is very complex
because it is not only associated with
organized crime groups to each other, but
also to police forces at different levels and
even migration agents.

As a proof of that, National

Migration Institute is making an
alleged purge of their regional
leaders at least in the south
eastern part of the country.
The shelters’ staff become a natural obstacle to
the activities of criminal groups, by protecting
migrants in transit, offering food, acommodation
and to denounce abuses they suffer in the journey
on the train.

Lecheria’s Shelter
Entrance
 The National Human Mobility
Pastoral…
Groups more
than 50 shelters
and human right
centers in
Mexico, organizes
national meetings
where the needs
of their members
are discussed.
But mostly the National Human Mobility Pastoral in these
spaces promotes bonding and networking, trying to reduce
the vulnerability of organizations to attacks by organized
crime, outbreaks of any police force, illegal detentions, and
so on.
There is a latent risk for migrants’ rights defenders.

- Death threats from organized crime (Solalinde case, end of 2010,

May 2012; Lecheria Case in early February)

- Murder of Santiago Rafael Cruz of FLOC (Farm Labor Organizing

Committee in Monterrey (April 9, 2007)

- Raids in the houses by unidentified armed forces (Lechería July

2010)

- Protests of neighbors in Lecheria, asking violently the relocation of

the shelter, August, 2011.

- Threats against Piedras Negras, Coahuila shelter on May 7, 2011.

And so on, and on…

 Although nearly two years ago on May 25, 2011,
Mexico’s Migration Law was enacted, the Congress
and the Senate, still cannot put together a
regulation to transform in actions this law because
of the electoral year, while migrants and their
defenders vulnerability increases.

Hypocritically, the Mexican government presents

this law in the international community context as
modern law in the subject.
 The future…
Shelters and other organizations as spaces
of dispute…

for organized crime, political parties, corrupt

authorities, oportunistic mass media, local

communities for and agaisnt…

 The facts…
 To recognize that only 1% of the total of
migrant are being attended in the shelters.
 There are hundreds of thousands of people are
not being helped and are also being trafficked
by organised crime groups.
 That hostels are not the solution, but a palliative
to the humanitarian emergency.
To this:

- Continue Networking
- Constantly analyze the socio, political and
economic environment in which is
immersed the shelter / organization,
identify stakeholders, whether allies or
enemies.
- Continue to document and denounce human
rights violations and when we are threatened,
report the facts on our network, in the media in
human rights commissions, etc..

- Further sensitize communities and local media

on the subject

- Follow basic safety measures for employees

 Organizations must not fulfill police
functions to protect migrants, or carry
weapons. What they have to do, is to
constantly require to Mexican government
to do its job of ensuring the safety of its
citizens and those who pass through
Mexico ...

¡THANKS!
 LINKS
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2007/09/03/index.php?section=politica&article=014n1pol
http://impreso.milenio.com/node/7079843
http://www.diputados.gob.mx/cedia/sia/spe/SPE-ISS-14-09.pdf
http://www.diputados.gob.mx/LeyesBiblio/pdf/140.pdf
http://www.proceso.com.mx/rv/modHome/pdfExclusiva/72314
https://www.amnesty.org/es/library/asset/AMR41/014/2010/es/1345cec1-2d36-4da6-b9c0-e607e408b203/amr410142010es.pdf

http://www.milenio.com/node/722470
http://www.proceso.com.mx/rv/modHome/pdfExclusiva/49685
http://www.milenio.com/node/712887