Latin American Migrants Are Dissapearing in Mexico

Between 2020 and 2021, the number of migrants gone missing on Mexican territory has nearly tripled. Experts warned the number could rise further because more people are expected to migrate once the US scraps one of its toughest anti-migraion policies. In addition, several migrant caravans have arrived in Mexico to find the missing migrants and demand justice due to the inability of Mexican authorities to facilitate this themselves.

The Missing Migrants Search Program of the Jesuit Migrant Service (SJM) reported that in 2020, 89 cases of missing migrants were reported in Mexico, while in 2021 there were 349, showing an increase of 292 percent. SJM explained that with the growing migration, especially to the US, migrants have become more vulnerable to kidnappings, forced disappearances and killings, among other crimes.

“There are even shelters that drug cartels identify to pick up migrants and integrate them into their gangs,” said Luis Macías, Director, SJM Mexico. “Presumably, the disappearances may be linked to crime groups or to the illegal crossing of people through desert areas or bodies of water located around the border. There are many different cases, but the pain the families of the missing migrants experience is the same,” said Jérémy Renaux, Regional Coordinator, the International Committee of the Red Cross’ Missing Persons Program.

According to the SJM report, most of the victims come from Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Venezuela. Nevertheless, Mexicans also suffer from these crimes, demonstrating that not even the country’s citizens can count on better protection. According to the study, 14 percent of the victims were minors, 44 percent were between 18 and 29 years old and 42 percent between 30 and 59 years old.

The Service highlighted that 75 percent of the missing migrants the organization managed to contact were detained in migration stations in the southern states of the country, where most migrants await their documentation to legally migrate to US. However, SJM emphasized that many migrants continue to disappear due to the inability of government institutions and their lack of commitment to search for those that go missing. “The lack of a reliable and up-to-date registry contributes to making the disappearance of migrants invisible,” said Renaux.

Because of the government’s limited progress in finding the missing migrants, caravans of Central American mothers looking for their relatives entered Mexico between May 1 and 10, 2022 to demand progress in the investigations, as well as larger-scale action and better protection mechanisms.

This week, the government announced that it would support these search caravans. The National Institute of Migration (INM) offered to open the files of the National Migratory Registry so that relatives can verify if there is any record of their disappeared relatives and promised to release and return imprisoned migrants to their countries of origin. The INM also offered to open acess to their personal files to identify public servants who have extorted migrants or their relatives.

A growing number of migrant caravans are arriving in Mexico after the US government announced that it will repeal the Title 42 policy on May 23, which was a mechanism to deport migrants linked to the COVID-19 pandemic during Donald Trump's presidency. This year, US and Mexican governments are expected to break records for migrant arrivals and refugee applications. Experts say that neither Mexico nor the US possesses the facilities or staff required to tend to these migrants. Therefore, the state of the region’s migration issues and the surrounding humanitarian crisis are expected to deteriorate.