Palenque subdelegation of the INM, @ SIPAZ archive
The National Commission on Human Rights (CNDH) met on 13 February with members of the Citizens Committee for Defense of the Naturalized and Afromexicans (CCDNAM) to give continuity to the case of 5 Haitians who were arrested on 20 October 2013 by agents of the National Institute on Migration (INM) of the Palenque subdelegation, while they were traveling on a passenger bus in Chiapas. The CCDNAM reported that it hat met with the adjunct visitor of the CNDH, Francisco Martínez, in Mexico, before whom it was reiterated that “our Haitian brothers suffered discrimination and abuse at the hands of the authorities of the [INM],” given that the Haitians had denounced being the object of abuse and “subhuman conditions” during their stay in Palenque, lacking all legal assistance. The CCDNAM activist noted that “they wanted to stay in Mexico to study but there was no will on the part of the authorities of this country,” such that “they now find themselves in the U.S. with their families.” Furthermore, he added that the Haitians decided to leave the country “due to the humiliation to which they were subjected by the INM in Palenque, and for fear of being deported.”
On 7 November 2013, one of the migrants, Emmanuel Phanor, attempted suicide as a protest against the discriminatory treatment to which he had been subjected, and to demand that the INM subdelegate not deport them to Haiti. After being hospitalized for three days, the youth returned to the Palenque station, where he was denied all medical attention, according to the activist. He explained that on 21 November the five Haitians presented themselves before the migration authorities of the U.S. on the border with Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, to request asylum, and on 26 November “their demand was accepted by the authorities of California.”
In this way, the CCDNAM lamented that “this type of abuse is representative of the systematic treatment of migrants transiting through Mexico, as a result of the subordination of migratory policy to the imperatives of secularization, militarization of borders, and the criminalization of undocumented workers.”
For more information (in Spanish):
Insisten haitianos en denuncia contra el INM (Chiapas Paralelo, 14 de febrero de 2014)
Denuncia ONG racismo
de agentes del INM (La Jornada, 4 de diciembre de 2013)
Obtienen visa de EU 5 migrantes haitianos detenidos en el INM en Chiapas (La Jornada, 1 de diciembre de 2013)
Agencia de viajes extorsionaba a migrantes en Chiapas (Noticias Terra, 28 de octubre de 2013)
For more information from SIPAZ (in English):
Chiapas: March from the Suchiate river to denounce abuses against migrants, and beginning of hunger strike (29 April 2013)
Chiapas: Organizations present report on migration during Sabines’ six-year reign (21 December 2012)
Mexico: Caravan of Central American mothers seeking out their children (2 November 2012)
Chiapas/Oaxaca: #WeMigrantsAre132 (20 June 2012)
Chiapas/Tabasco: “The forgotten border” press-conference (13 December 2011)
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