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US policies expose migrants to violence in Mexico, says MSF

Mexico City, Feb 11 (EFE) .- The immigration policies from the United States aggravate the humanitarian crisis in the region by exposing migrants to violence, often forcing them to remain stranded in dangerous places in Mexico, denounced the NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in the presentation of its report "No way out".(CAMERA: Miguel Ángel Andrade)IMAGES: SOUNDBITES BY SERGIO MARTÍN, GENERAL COORDINATOR OF DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS IN MEXICO.1. "We are talking about people who have often been displaced inside their countries of origin, people fleeing the countryside, that move from the rural areas to the cities, and what they find there is a very violent environment, and what we see there is that they can't have a normal life and they are recruited by the gangs, and they are victims of extortion, rape, violence, murders ... we are talking about some of the countries with the highest rates of murders in the world, so it is an environment that forces them to escape again, adding a second vulnerability"2. "What we are seeing now is one more twist to the plot with these measures that criminalize immigrants and by which they are no longer solely facing deterring measures such as checkpoints, a barrier on the road that forces them to go to the mountain, to expose themselves to other diseases and hardships and organized crime, we no longer talk just that, we talk about the fact that today the US government takes whole families and is sending them to one of the most dangerous areas of Mexico such as the state of Tamaulipas under the pretext of protecting them it, and this is illogical and irresponsible and we denounce it"3. "I understand that all this is done with bilateral agreements and Mexico receives these people under the pretext of humanitarian asylum, for us, this is a very clear message to the US government: stop sending vulnerable people and place them in dangerous places in Mexico when there are no the minimum conditions to ensure them access to hygiene, health, housing and security, the Mexican government cannot ensure access to safety to Mexicans who live in some of these dangerous cities, we cannot pretend that these are going to be safe places for migrants "4. "The migratory phenomenon will not stop, however with this criminalization and this massive repression, vulnerability, exposure to violence, extortion, kidnapping, rape will increase"