UN human rights chief calls for investigation on migrants' abuse

[News_Editor]

UN human rights chief calls for investigation on migrants' abuse

2011-01-22 00:39:56 GMT+7 (ICT)

UNITED NATIONS (BNO NEWS) -- Navi Pillay, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), on Friday called on Mexican authorities to conduct a thorough investigation on migrant's abuse.

Pillay referred to the fate of a group of about 40 migrants who have been missing since they were abducted in Mexico last month. She also expressed her concern over death threats to a prominent human rights defender assisting other migrants who escaped the ordeal.

"The migrants were abducted in highly questionable circumstances a month ago. Since then there has been no trace of them, and human rights defenders working with other members of the same group have been repeatedly threatened," said the human rights head.

On December 16, around 250 migrants from various countries of Central America were traveling on a north-bound freight train in the state of Oaxaca, southern Mexico, when it was stopped by police forces.

A joint operation by police, migration officials and military personnel resulted in the detention of 92 of the migrants. Reportedly, 150 individuals got back the train and the driver demanded money from them to continue.

As he was not satisfied with the amount of money given, the driver threatened the migrants with further 'problems.' Most of the migrants were from El Salvador and Guatemala.

Shortly after, the train was reportedly boarded by unidentified gunmen who assaulted and robbed some of the migrants, and then abducted around 40 of them, including at least 10 women and one child.

Two days later, some of them reappeared at the migrant shelter "Hermanos en el Camino" in Ixtepec, Oaxaca. They told Father Alejandro Solalinde, a well-known defender of migrants' rights, about their ordeal and how they managed to escape.

Father Solalinde denounced the crime to authorities and since then he has received many death threats for his involvement in the case. Mexican authorities said that an investigation was under way but no arrests have been made.

The UN human rights chief urged authorities to conduct a thorough and transparent investigation of the alleged ill-treatment and abuse of the migrants by the Federal Police and migration staff, as well as on the threats received by Father Solalinde.

"The Mexican authorities need to ascertain whether or not any state officials, including those working for the state-owned train operator, were complicit with the criminal organization that carried out the abductions and extortion, both in this and other cases," Pillay added.

Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights have stated that thousands of transiting migrants have been kidnapped over the past two years. Last August, 72 bodies were discovered in a mass grave in northern Mexico.

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