The NGO Doctors Without Borders denounced this Thursday a worrying increase in violence against migrants on their journey through Central America and Mexico, at a time when the migratory flow is also breaking records.
According to the organization, when presenting its annual report, there are cases of sexual violence mostly in the Darien junglebetween Panama and Colombia, and physical violence or kidnappings in northeastern Mexico, in the state of Tamaulipas, bordering Texas.
“We are extremely concerned about the normalization of situations of extreme violence, such as extortion, kidnapping and sexual violence that directly affect the physical and mental health of this population,” he added. “It seems as if violence had become a mechanism for regulating the migratory flow” which, in addition, was made up of a more vulnerable population.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) treated 36% more children under five years of age.
The migratory flow through Central America and Mexico, with more women and children, surpassed its own records in 2023 with more than half a million people crossing the Darién, a route controlled by organized crime in which reports of abuse have been recurrent.
Although many people do not report sexual violence, they treated 232 people due to this emergency. The cases detected in Honduras and Guatemala were related to abuses that occurred in Darién and those in northern Guatemala and Mexico to abuses by authorities or kidnappings.
On occasions, migrants were subjected to touching their genitals to search for money or valuables, although they did not describe these practices as attacks, the report indicates.
In early April, another international organization, Human Rights Watch, accused Panama and Colombia of not protecting the hundreds of thousands of migrants crossing the Darien, to which the governments of both countries responded by asking the international community for more support to cope with the situation.
According to MSF, there is a deterioration in the security situation at many points along the route but, in addition, the increase in uncertainty due to changes in immigration regulations and the lack of clear information has multiplied the vulnerability of migrants and, therefore, violence, something that was noticeable in the last months of 2023 in Tamaulipas.
On that northeastern border of Mexico, MSF treated 775 victims of violence. 22% of them girls, boys and adolescents. One in four mental health consultations in Matamoros and Reynosa were for kidnapping, indicated Renata Viana.
MSF stressed that the increase in mobilizations of foreigners should not imply an increase in violence, but rather “proves the absolute ineffectiveness of the existing policies and mechanisms to protect these populations,” said Camilo Vélez, deputy head of mission, referring to guarantee their access to health, safe transit or international protection.
The report speaks, in addition to “cumulative violence” in cases of kidnapping, “such as threats, physical violence, sexual violence, deprivation of sleep and food and water, in addition to reports of extreme physical violence such as acid burns, fractures and stabbings, and they even mention having witnessed homicides.”
In Guatemala, the NGO received reports of more than 150 people who returned from Mexico due to the violence suffered there.
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