Mexico: A painful last stop for migrants in the Americas

Migrants face many dangers along travel routes through Central America as they proceed towards the USA in order to seek asylum, and in Mexico these threats can be extreme. DRC is therefore present in the field, providing protection support in a very difficult and under-discussed context.

The end of a perilous journey

Sitting just south of the United States, Mexico represents the penultimate stop on a continent-wide migration route.

Though migration from Mexico and Central America into the United States is not a new phenomenon, recent years have seen a set of new routes opening up, allowing for migrants from further afield to attempt the journey as well.

But there is nothing simple or straightforward about making this trip. Today, the largest nationality attempting to enter the United States to seek asylum is Venezuelans.

To reach the United States by land, as most Venezuelan asylum seekers do, they must pass through no fewer than seven different countries along the way, and navigate their way through Darien Gap on foot.

The Darién Gap

Migrants crossing from south to north must face one of the fiercest natural barriers in the Americas: The Darién Gap.

This is a 100km expanse of jungle and mountain straddling the Colombia-Panama border, the only place between Alaska and Argentina in which there is no road connection.

Therefore migrants must face this wilderness and navigate their way through on foot. It is an incredibly difficult and dangerous journey, taking several days.

As such, the area used to see few outsiders, other than local indigenous populations and organized smuggling operations.

But recent years have seen a full-blown migration route open through the gap, with a growing influx of asylum seekers braving extremely dangerous conditions to make the crossing.

Migrants here face significant risks from both the natural environment and organized smuggling gangs who control the routes. Fatal injuries and deaths from exhaustion and exposure are not uncommon.

More than 350,000 people have been recorded making the crossing so far in 2023, most of them either Venezuelan or Haitian.

One of the biggest problems we find here is lack of safety. People are scared, because they are vulnerable, they are on the streets, they are in improvised camps. Sometimes they are subject to criminal gangs that try to take advantage of their situation.

Helmer Peredo, Base Manager

Pervasive risk of crime and exploitation

Though conditions in each country along the route can vary widely, migrants are extremely vulnerable at most stages of the journey, and Mexico is arguably among the riskiest points, with migrants facing pervasive and significant risks of victimization.

Mexico also tends to be among the longest stopovers, as asylum seekers are frequently stranded in Mexico for weeks or months as they await permission to present themselves for the initial phase of making an asylum claim at a United States port of entry along the southern US border.

Organized crime has a significant presence across much of Mexico, and a new economy of exploitation has been built around the presence of migrants from outside the region, with victimization taking numerous forms, often depending on which organized criminal group is operating.

This ranges from outright abduction for ransom, where the victim is often abused and tortured in order to extract payment from family elsewhere, to enslavement for sex or other labor, or forcing the migrants themselves to act as smugglers for drugs or other illicit goods.

These groups, sometimes in collaboration with corrupt local authorities, also control movements on many sectors of the migration route within Mexico, to the extent that some have begun using a wristband system to identify migrants who have paid the fee to be allowed to continue to their next destination.

It is nearly impossible for a migrant to cross the country without interacting with these groups in some way, and there are vanishingly few trustworthy resources that a migrant in need or distress can turn to.

The Mexican state is reluctant to brand the migration situation a ‘crisis’, and the institutional response is insufficient and arbitrary. There are few reliable regulations or guidelines, and the legal framework within which migrants cross the country is ambiguous, with response and enforcement often down to the individual whims of the offices and officers responsible.

Given the heightened risk of victimization along Mexico's northern and southern borders, DRC's protection teams regularly visit informal settlements to provide information and identify people in particular need. Photo: Sean Connolly/DRC

Focus on protection

And that is why Danish Refugee Council is there. Our work in Mexico focuses on protection, aiming to reduce the risk of victimization faced by many migrants, and to improve the conditions of those present in the country.

That means our work often looks very different according to the needs presented. It can involve providing hygiene kits and other basic items to migrants living in tent camps along the border, connecting people to legal aid or other resources, or even locating them a safer place to stay.

Through our Individual Protection Assistance programming, we seek out and identify individuals and families at particular risk of victimization and provide resources to alleviate some of that risk.

At the southern border, where migrants, often with little idea of what awaits them in Mexico or how big the country is (the 13^th largest country in the world – nearly the size of Greenland) first set foot, we are present and offering information and protection assistance as they navigate their first steps in the country.

And at the northern border, where migrants face a particularly acute risk of victimization, we work within formal and informal migrant settlements and in partnership with several local organizations to alleviate the extreme protection risks faced by the migrant population, with a particular focus on women and families.

We also work in other parts of Mexico to develop durable solutions for Mexicans who have been internally displaced by violent conflict.

Here in the state of Tamaulipas there is a humanitarian crisis. We implement activities to strengthen the dignity of people. The staff is really dedicated and cares for the dignity of people in distress.

Shantal Gamiz, Protection Manager

We are there

Danish Refugee Council’s teams in Mexico are small, and security concerns affect all aspects of their day-to-day operations.

Our teams are constantly monitoring security incidents and movements of those around them, and operations are often changed in response to the fluid security situation.

It is in this difficult context that our dedicated staff works to improve the protracted situations of displacement and insecurity that a growing number of migrants in Mexico find themselves in.

And with Darién Gap crossings growing by large percentages year-on-year, the need is only set to expand. Join us in supporting this important work.