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Mexico Fails to Offer Migrants Asylum, Amnesty International Reports

Guatemalan migrants wait to enter Mexico. PHOTO: Panama Post

23 January 2018

USA TODAY (AP) — An Amnesty International survey of 385 Central American migrants suggests that Mexican authorities routinely force people to return to dangerous conditions in their home countries, the rights group said Tuesday.

Seventy-five percent of the migrants from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador who were interviewed said they had not been informed by Mexican immigration agents about their right to seek asylum in Mexico.

The report also said that “people seeking asylum whose lives are at risk in Central America are very frequently pressured into signing ‘voluntary return’ deportation papers.”

It cited the case of a Honduran bus driver who was killed three weeks after he was returned to his country from Mexico, despite the fact that street gangs in Honduras frequently target bus drivers for extortion.

Mexico’s National Immigration Institute acknowledged there was room for improvement, but denied it forced or tricked people into signing voluntary return papers. […]


Guatemalan Government Demands that Mexico Respect Migrants’ Human Rights

By Elena Toledo | 27 June 2018

PANAMA POST — The Guatemalan government is urging Mexico to respect the human rights of migrants crossing Mexico on their way to their final destination in the United States. Guatemalan Foreign Minister, Carlos Raúl Morales Moscoso, warned that if Mexico continues violating the guarantees of Guatemalan citizens, they will make a public statement.

According to Morales Moscoso, the border crossings between Guatemala and Mexico are “monuments to corruption” which is why they must use intelligence to prevent drug contraband. The official also confirmed that during the administration of President Donald Trump, the deportations of Guatemalans have declined to 1,500 returnees less than in the same time period of 2016. […]

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