Mexico deports unaccompanied minors trying to reach the United States to escape gang violence or in their homes, in violation of their own law protecting migrant childrensaid a Spanish journalist who has been awarded by the UN for his research on this topic.
“Unfortunately, in Mexico, apart from having a serious problem of violence, we have a serious problem of impunity,” he told EFE. Manu Ureste, Spanish journalist based in Mexico who won a UN award for his investigation ‘Migrant childhood, paper promises’.
Ureste, who works for the Mexican digital media Political Animal, traveled to New York to meet with representatives of Unicef, as part of the Breach/Valdez Award in the category of Rights of Children and Adolescents awarded in 2023 by United Nations of Mexicoan award that bears the name of two journalists murdered in that country.
He recalled that in 2021 Mexico launched a reform that promised to put the country at the forefront in the protection of children’s rights, but, “that only remained on paper.”
The reform established that Each case of a minor detained in Mexico must be evaluated individually, before making a decision about their future and prohibited them from being detained in immigration jails, but he assures that this is not fulfilled.
It was also established that they would be the Offices for the Protection of Girls, Boys and Adolescents, and not the National Institute of Migration (INM) those who would decide in the first instance whether or not he is deported, after evaluating the case.
According to their research, between January 2021 when the reform came into effect and May 2022 (when the report was published) 98,671 minors were detained but only 19,067 went through the new evaluation system, that is, 19 percent.
He stressed that it is known the problems that migrants face in their attempt to reach the United Stateswhich shares the southern border with Mexico, but the story of thousands of unaccompanied children who leave their country to flee the MS-13 gang is unknown.
To know their stories, Ureste traveled to Honduraswhere he interviewed several minors, including one who was deported and who lives hidden in his home to prevent the gang from knowing about his return, since leaving the country without permission from the criminals can cost them their lives, as has happened, he highlighted.
The Spaniard’s report was accompanied by a video with interviews with the children in which no faces are shown or they are identified and they tell how The Mara recruits them by offering moneymotorcycles, cell phones and weapons, and promises that “no one will mess with them.”
Ureste highlights that many accept due to the level of poverty in which they live, but when they are asked to kill someone they feel afraid and try to flee; Some make it but others are discovered earlier by the gang.
Ureste, also winner of the Ortega y Gasset award in 2018 awarded by the newspaper The countryfor another investigative work, regrets that so far Mexico has not reacted to the investigation that exposes the reality of thousands of children in that country.
“I would have liked that (the investigation) to translate into changes in policy: simply apply the law that they themselves approved. In Mexico you have to have a level of tolerance for frustration,” he commented.
