Almost all migrants fleeing gang violence in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador face torture, kidnapping and sexual assault as they travel into Mexico.
Almost all of the estimated 500,000 migrants who travel into Mexico each year, fleeing poverty and danger in Central America, are victims of violence along their journey.
Torture, kidnapping and sexual assault are common along the route north for many who already suffered attacks, threats, extortion or forced gang recruitment at home, said the report by Médecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
“The picture that emerges from our report is one of terrorized vulnerable people running for their lives and those of their families,” Bertrand Rossier, MSF’s Head of Mission in Mexico.
Most of the migrants are trying to escape the so-called Northern Triangle of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, where violence, much gang-related, has created a “staggering” refugee crisis, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said last year. Nine out of 10 people fleeing Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador in 2015 and 2016 were victims of violence along the route, MSF said.
Nearly two out of five people said the violence occurred in their home countries, and two-thirds said they suffered violence in Mexico that included torture by security forces, aggressive detention and deportation policies and kidnapping by criminal organizations. Nearly one third of women reported sexual abuse.
To address the crisis, governments in the region, including the United States, Mexico and Canada, must allow more people to resettle from Central America, MSF said. Specifically, they should increase resettlement and family reunification quotas.
