Report Shows Northern Triangle Refugees Are Being Sent Back to Danger and Death Frey Lindsay - Verdict
go to original June 30, 2017

Central American refugees flee violence (Jesuit Refugee Service)

A report from the Center for Migration Studies in New York and El Salvador-based human rights NGO Cristosal shows the brutal conditions the US and Mexico are sending Central American refugees back to.

It reveals through migrants’ own words how would-be host countries knowingly send vulnerable people back to lives of fear, poverty and violence.

Cristosal works to support migrants in the Northern Triangle region of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.

The populations of each one of these countries have been devastated by gang violence over the last decade.

Guatemala has the sixth-highest average murder rate over the last ten years, El Salvador the second highest. Honduras is the murder capital of the world for a reason.

A Doctors Without Borders report from last month describes it better than Verdict can:

The violence experienced by the population of the NTCA (Northern Triangle of Central America) is not unlike that of individuals living through war. Citizens are murdered with impunity, kidnappings and extortion are daily occurrences. Non-state actors perpetuate insecurity and forcibly recruit individuals into their ranks, and use sexual violence as a tool of intimidation and control.

Around 500,000 people cross Mexico’s southern border each year according to figures from the UN High Commission on Refugees.

There is a widespread misconception that migrants don’t go to Mexico, they come from Mexico. The assumption is they are all on their way to the US.

While it is broadly true that the US is the ultimate destination for a lot of NTCA refugees, even Mexico, with the 19th highest murder rate, represents a much safer environment than their home countries.

In 2016 almost 9,000 people applied for asylum in Mexico, 91.6 percent of them from the Northern Triangle.

This represents, however, only around a tenth of the NTCA refugees who enter Mexico each year. The ones that don’t apply are either on their way to the US, seeking temporary shelter or simply do not know how to apply for asylum. Many don’t even know they can apply for asylum in Mexico.

This idea that refugees are just passing through contributes to the poor treatment of NTCA refugees in Mexico, according to UNHCR:

Their protection needs have generally been overlooked, mainly as they have often been viewed as migrants in transit.

Protection is the key word here.

Read the full report from Cristosal and the Center for Migration Studies

Read the rest at Verdict

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