Tons of of individuals die attempting to cross the border from Mexico. The arduous job of figuring out the our bodies.
In the USA, the arrival of Joe Biden within the presidency two years in the past has prompted vital migration on the southern border. many migrants anticipate a gap after the repressive insurance policies of the Donald Trump years. And for some lately, hopes have been renewed with the Democratic President’s journey to Mexico following a go to to the border final Sunday.
Greater than 2.four million folks had been arrested by US border patrol in 2022, up from 1.6 million in 2021. An increasing number of migrants are shedding their lives on this dangerous journey. About 853 vacationers had been discovered useless final yr on the American aspect. Others are absent.
In California, Arizona and Texas there are civil organizations looking for the our bodies of those migrants who disappeared within the desert and combating to have them recognized and returned to their households.
Vicente Rodríguez based the Californian group Águilas del Desierto 10 years in the past. A few times a month, his group of volunteers go on expeditions to the Arizona desert and numerous frontier areas. These are search and rescue operations.
“Truly, we’re primarily searching for useless folks. Typically we discover lacking migrants who’re nonetheless alive, however extra typically we discover useless folks. Final yr we discovered 22 our bodies, the yr earlier than 28,” he explains.
Águilas del Desierto additionally carries out an vital work of prevention on the Mexican aspect. Its members go to the numerous immigrant reception facilities alongside the border to warn these wishing to cross the border of the dangers they face.
“Water scarcity is likely one of the main causes of demise for these migrants, coupled with the lengthy distances they should journey. In Arizona they often should stroll as a lot as 100 miles. And the warmth can attain 48 levels,” he says to Vincent Rodríguez.
treacherous river
The variety of migrants who drown within the Rio Grande, known as Rio Bravo on the Mexican aspect, can be steadily growing. Those that know the world say that it’s a treacherous river that hides violent currents beneath its obvious calm.
Lately, migrant organizations have discovered that the useless our bodies discovered had been typically by no means recognized, as Maureen Meyer from the US NGO WOLA stories: “Carelessness was taken, particularly in South Texas. Every time extra our bodies had been discovered and all the things was in chaos. Some had been buried in mass graves. Now civil society is working to establish them, not the authorities.”
The South Texas Middle for Human Rights began a program of Exhumation of corpses positioned in mass graves so as to have the ability to establish them. Eduardo Canales, its director, denounces the inertia of the authorities.
“We discovered a couple of years in the past that Brooks County, the place we’re based mostly, doesn’t take DNA samples from these our bodies, regardless that they’re required by legislation to take action. And this district is a demise row for criminals.” Migrants. In Texas, each county does what it needs. It is actually a catastrophe,” he says.
The problem of figuring out the useless
Greater than 200 our bodies of migrants have been discovered on this area of far south Texas previously two years. Eduardo Canales accuses Gov. Greg Abbott of chopping identification funds and diverting them to frame safety operations: ‘Forcing migrants to cross the desert on the river once they come right here to work is ridiculous’ , he says.
Refugees from Central and South America have nearly no probability of looking for asylum in the USA, which has blocked their system.
Their desperation drives them to those harmful crossings, in line with Maureen Meyer: “This technique of sealing off the border and all these police measures power migrants to decide on different, longer and riskier routes and to let the traffickers carry them off at the price of their lives”.
Present immigration insurance policies come at a human worth: 853 folks died attempting to cross the border final yr.
Fuente: RFI
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