Mexico’s unseen victims

Mexico is in the midst of a hidden humanitarian crisis. Entire rural communities have been viciously emptied by violent drug cartels looking to appropriate their land and natural resources. Residents have fled cities and states where the Mexican military is heavily engaged in armed conflict against organized criminal groups. As a result of targeted assassinations, kidnappings, and extortion, Mexican families have been forced to escape by abandoning their homes and livelihoods.

Hundreds of thousands of Mexicans are internally displaced and in desperate need of documentation, shelter, livelihoods, and psychosocial support. Their existence must be acknowledged by the Mexican government, and a comprehensive humanitarian strategy to promote and protect their rights must be put into effect.

POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS:

· The Mexican government should:

· Develop a definition of internal displacement that is consistent with the Guiding Principles and incorporated into all government institutions working with the population;

· Conduct a nationwide survey and needs assessment of those internally displaced due to organized criminal groups;

· Add specific questions to the 2015 population count and the 2020 census on underlying reasons for movement;

· Appoint a lead and institutional focal point within the Ministry of Interior and establish an interdepartmental working group for coordinating responses to internal displacement that includes relevant municipal and state offices;

· Fully fund the 2013 Victim’s Law annually and create a specific committee within the Executive Commission for Attention to Victims and an account for IDPs to assist them in securing safe shelter, a sustainable livelihood, compensation for or restoration of lost land, property or housing, and access to justice;

· Build on improvements to civil and birth registration at the national level and provide legal documentation to those internally displaced that can be used to access education, work, shelter, and municipal and state services; and

· Train community-based, municipal, state, and federal police and military personnel on how to identify and protect the rights of IDPs.

· The U.S. government should provide Mexicans who express a fear of return with an individual hearing before an asylum officer, and extend protection to those individuals who demonstrate a well-founded fear of persecution on account of a protected ground or a likelihood of torture.

· In accordance with its global IDP policy, the UN Refugee Agency should encourage the Mexican government to take more robust action on internal displacement, and offer technical and financial support to strengthen the Mexican government’s capacity to respond.

Useful Links:

· https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4bWk81WPHs

· https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=REFUGEE+SECURITY

· http://www.kaiptc.org/Publications/Occasional-Papers/Documents/no_11.aspx

· http://web.mit.edu/cis/www/migration/pubs/rrwp/4_safety.html

· http://www.unhcr.org/4444afc80.pdf

· https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0TIIO4SXoY

· https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qh36-vz1vvg

· https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEIdePgPKbc

· http://eeas.europa.eu/ifs/publications/articles/rep1/reportage%20vol1_chapter3_chad%20-%20boosting%20security%20in%20refugee%20camps.pdf

· http://cisac.fsi.stanford.edu/publications/refugee_security_and_the_organizational_logic_of_legal_mandates