More than half of the irregular migrants who arrive in Mexico flee violence in their countries

Mexico, the country that is repeatedly called the wall of the United States, is going through its umpteenth immigration crisis.

The numbers have not stopped climbing in recent years and the alerts are hardly surprising anymore.

But many phenomena that were already recorded have deepened.

One is that of people who migrate fleeing violence, insecurity and threats in their countries.

Currently, 51% of people who enter irregularly do so for this reason, according to monitoring carried out by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) throughout last year.

This is a significant increase in relation to the 40% that was registered between 2018 and 2022. The report evaluates new migratory phenomena, such as groups arriving from Ecuador escaping the latest wave of violence, or the security situation in Mexico.

According to the report, crossing the country is as dangerous as the entire journey a migrant takes to reach the southern border, including El Darién, the dangerous crossing between Colombia and Panama.

Mexico experienced a peak in asylum requests in 2023: it was the year with the most requests for refuge in its history, with more than 140,000 people who needed that protection.

This increase placed the country among the five main recipients of asylum seekers worldwide, according to UNHCR data.

The monitoring carried out by the agency collected information from about 15,000 people in different cities, from Tapachula to Matamoros or from Villahermosa to Tijuana.

Changes in migratory movements were reflected in the report, for example, before more young men traveled alone, while now it is more normal to meet families along the way.

Agents from the National Migration Institute together with the National Guard detain migrants in a hotel in Tapachula, on December 1.Damián Sánchez Jesús (Cuartoscuro)

Among the reasons that migrants gave for leaving their home is the situation of generalized violence, possible persecution and threats.

54% of the total said that, if they returned, they would have to face direct threats.

Added to that is a more shocking fact.

66% of the people surveyed said that “their life, safety or freedom would be in danger if they were returned to their country of origin.”

Half of all those consulted said they had been victims of some act of violence, intimidation or description.

At this point, the figure increases when it comes to women.

Although the survey does not delve into who carried out the violence.

There is still a large part of the pie that migrates due to lack of work or in search of better job opportunities, in this case, 48% marked it as a cause.

The crisis in Haiti has also been portrayed in the document.

A little outside the parameters maintained to a greater or lesser extent by other countries of origin, 72% of migrants coming from the Caribbean island said they migrated due to a shortage of jobs or fear of a situation of violence.

While only 23% said they had been victims of insecurity or xenophobia.

Haitians also face another phenomenon.

Just like a large part of Venezuelans or Hondurans, they first tried their luck in another destination, such as Chile or Brazil.

But they ended up fleeing a second time mainly due to lack of employment or having been victims of violence.

Mexico ends up being as dangerous as other destinations for migrants.

The UNHCR count indicates that 52% of arriving migrants suffered some incident along the way—where organized crime operates freely—such as robbery, extortion, a threat or an attack.

While 56% of those who crossed the country also had one of these incidents.

This is an important leap: a 2019 report from the National Institute of Public Health, the National Autonomous University of Mexico and the Autonomous University of Mexico City stated that 29% of migrants are victims of physical, psychological or sexual violence .

The UN agency has also found a correlation between those who do not have documentation in Mexico and those who are more likely to suffer these episodes, especially in the aspect of extortion by public officials.

Migrants wait along train tracks in Huehuetoca, in September 2023.Eduardo Verdugo (AP)

The migratory phenomenon in Ecuador appears recent in the figures.

Even in terms of organization.

The other countries that have had waves of migration to Mexico and the United States for years, or perhaps decades, tend to do so in a more organized way, in communities.

But that still doesn't happen to Ecuadorians.

They are more dispersed and many of them even end up living on the streets of different cities.

Along with Venezuela, it is the country that has the most migrants without accommodation.

In the case of the first it is 34%, and in the second it is 25%.

As has happened historically, the vast majority of them want to reach the United States, and take their southern neighbor as a bridge.

However, 26% of those surveyed last year chose Mexico as their final destination.

Already more anecdotally than studied, UNHCR recorded that some 207 people were expelled and sent to Mexico after the end of title 47, which allowed immigration authorities to detain people without documentation and deport them.

The most critical site was the border between Eagle Pass, in Texas, and Piedras Negras, in Coahuila.

A point also known for being ground zero of the immigration confrontation in the northern country.

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