National: Over 40 Organizations Demand Protection from the State for Migrants in the Pandemic

@Sinembargo

On July 1^st in an online transmission, the report “Proposal of alternative routes to detention for the migrant population and asylum seekers in Mexico during the Covid-19 pandemic” was presented. In the event which was coordinated by the University Seminar for Studies on Internal Displacement, Migration, Exile and Repatriation of the UNAM, representatives from OXFAM Mexico, the International Detention Coalition, the Fray Matias de Cordova Center for Human Rights on the southern border, and Al Otro Lado Tijuana on the northern border participated.

The report reveals the conditions of risk of contagion and violation of rights faced by thousands of migrants in Mexico and calls on the responsible authorities and control and surveillance bodies to act urgently in order to guarantee that migrants in Mexico have access to their rights.

The report also emphasizes that children continue to be victims of arrests: “We are particularly concerned about the presence of thousands of accompanied children and adolescents, whose best interests are also permanently omitted in the considerations of the Mexican authorities.”

The report, backed by more than 40 civil society organizations, proposes 11 minimum lines of action for the implementation of emergency sanitary measures with the population on the move in the country, in order to reduce the risks of transmission of the virus in this sector, as well as for the officials who serve them and for the communities that host them.

In the presentation, it was repeatedly emphasized that it is not a matter of implementing a different policy but of ensuring that Mexico meets its responsibilities, which derive from international conventions that it has ratified.

More information in Spanish:

En México hay 100 mil migrantes en riesgo por Covid-19, alerta la UNAM (La Jornada 1 de julio)

“Propuesta de rutas alternativas a la detención para la población migrante y solicitante de asilo en México durante la pandemia del Covid-19”(Informe, julio 2020)

UNAM pide acciones para proteger de la pandemia a 100 mil migrantes. (ejecentral 2 de julio)