With alarming but inaccurate numbers, the disappearances of migrants in Mexico have become a daily phenomenon, as well as little attention, due to the lack of commitment of the authorities to prevent cases and search for victims, underlines a report from the Jesuit Migrant Service Mexico (SJM-Mexico)
The report on the Disappearance of Migrant Persons in Mexico —which analyzes 1,280 cases of disappeared persons between 2007 and 2021 in the region through the Search Program for Disappeared Migrant Persons (PBPMD)— highlights that despite the fact that disappearances occur Every day, there are no accurate data that allow us to know the real magnitude of the problem.
This when highlighting that according to data from the Mesoamerican Migrant Movement organization estimates that between 2006 and 2016 between 72,000 and 120,000 migrants disappeared, while the International Organization for Migration (IOM), through the Missing Migrants Program, has counted 3,716 people. dead and/or missing migrants from 2014 to 2021 on the border between Mexico and the United States.
However, these data contrast with the official figures. The National Registry of Missing and Non-Located Persons (RNPDNO), only records, between 1964 and 2022, the disappearance of 2,733 foreign persons, while filtering the data of “migrant persons” only 59 cases are counted, of which, 12 have already been located.
“Data that, without a doubt, shows the abysmal underreporting of migrants reported as missing in Mexico,” emphasizes the document.
Withholding data
In addition to the under-registration that the authorities maintain on missing migrants, it is also noted that there is another great pending regarding the registration of foreigners detained for migratory reasons.
The study indicated that of those cases that were followed up, in 94% the migrant person disappeared in Mexico was identified; and about 75% of those migrants who were located were detained in some migratory station, especially in those located in the south of the country in entities such as Chiapas and Tabasco.
Meanwhile, it was said that in the other cases where the search program could not locate the disappeared person, it is presumed that the disappearance may be linked to actions of organized crime or the crossing of people through desert areas or bodies of water located on the border between Mexico and the United States.
On the other hand, it was found that although most of the disappeared migrants came from countries in Central America, 22% of the cases were Mexicans, which disproves the idea that only foreign migrants disappear in our country.
While 14% were children or adolescents up to 17 years of age, and only 1% were older adults. In particular, it is the states of Chiapas (18%), Tamaulipas (16%), Sonora (12%) and Nuevo León with 10%, where the most disappearances of migrants were reported.
Due to the foregoing, the SJM-Mexico emphasized that the relatives of disappeared migrants face considerable difficulties in exercising their rights of access to justice and the truth due to the lack of clarity in the search procedures, as well as the lack of information on the progress in the investigations and, in many cases, due to inactivity on the part of the authorities responsible for the search.
“The lack of commitment of the authorities to comply with their obligations in terms of prevention and search for missing migrants is evident, both at the federal and state levels, since, although there has been progress on the issue in recent years, they have been limited and there are still many pending issues to provide comprehensive attention to this problem,” the report concluded.