Mexican refugees flee to Canada as gang wars get deadlier
Vancouver seeing steady rise in claimants, all with terrifying stories about drug wars back home.
Professionals on the run from Mexico’s brutal drug wars are beginning to turn up in Vancouver in search of a safe haven.
This new class of would-be refugee includes lawyers, doctors, police officers and businessmen who say they are being chased out of their country by warring drug cartels whose members have resorted to torture, execution, dismemberment and decapitation to warn their enemies.
An estimated 1,100 people have died in the heated conflict already this year, following 5,300 deaths recorded last year.
As fears mount, record numbers of Mexican nationals are fleeing over the border into the United States and Canada.
According to the L.A. Times, the number of asylum requests filed at U.S. border entries by Mexican nationals nearly doubled in the last fiscal year, and pace continues to increase.
In Canada, 8,069 Mexican nationals requested refugee status last year, up from 7,028 in the previous year, according to the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada.
Statistics provided by the Canadian Border Services Agency to a French-language daily newspaper, meanwhile, put the 2008 number much higher at 9,456 — a figure representing nearly one-quarter of all asylum requests made that year.
The sudden spike in refugee applications from Mexico is a direct concequence of the drug wars between cartels, as the Mexican government tries to break up crime rings, CBSA documents provided to La Presse state.
Vancouver, like the rest of the country, has seen a steady rise in the number of asylum-seekers arriving from Mexico over the past few years.
But, lately, refugee-assistance agencies say they are definitely seeing more professionals, including doctors, nurses and lawyers, coming through their doors looking for help.
All of them have terrifying stories about the drug wars back home, said Mario Ayala with the Inland Refugee Society.
Some health professionals have told him they became targets for violence after a gang member in their care died, Ayala said.
Others said their lives were put in danger after cartel members identified them as wealthy and began demanding cash in return for their safety.
Until last year, Ayala said it was “quite unusual” to see Mexican professionals among those seeking asylum in Canada. Typically, individuals in this particular economic category would seek entry as business investors, family-sponsored immigrants or as students, he said.
It remains unclear how many asylum requests based on fear of drug violence will be approved. In Canada, refugee claims can take 17 months or longer to work their way through the system, according to Ayala.
To date, only about 10 per cent of all refugee claims from Mexico are accepted. The vast majority of asylum seekers are returned home.
Successful applicants will be required to prove that, because of their profession, they are being persecuted by the drug gangs and that their own government is either unable, or unwilling to protect them.
Mexico has been the number-one source country for refugee claimants in Canada since 2005. Mexican nationals do not require a visa to enter the country.
Mexico's drug violence made headlines in B.C. earlier this month after Attorney-General Wally Oppal met with his counterpart from the Mexican state of Baja California — Rommel Moreno Manjarrez. The pair agreed to a plan to share more information about multinational organized crime groups smuggling drugs across the borders.
Moreno Manjarrez told reporters at the time his country is "at war" with drug cartels, whose murder victims have included judges, prosecutors, police officers and lawyers.
He said the agreement with B.C. is "a very important step in the new way to confront organized crime that operates beyond traditional boundaries."
In B.C., gang violence has skyrocketed in recent months, though remains well below Mexico statistics. Most of it is linked to the lucrative drug trade and disputes over turf and product. B.C. gangsters have been using Mexico as a place to vacation and meet.
Two members of a notorious B.C. gang — the United Nations — were gunned down in Mexico last summer.
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Mexican asylum-seekers turned away
Human-rights advocates and government clash over an increase in refugee claims
JENNIFER DITCHBURN
The Canadian Press
March 28, 2009
OTTAWA -- Human-rights and refugee advocates say the Conservative government is ignoring a terrifying security crisis that is pushing thousands of Mexicans to seek safety in Canada.
The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) late last year linked bloody drug-cartel wars in Mexico to a sharp hike in the number of refugee claims - more than 8,000 compared with 7,000 the year before.
But Immigration Minister Jason Kenney says he has not received any such briefings. Instead, he says, he has been told of widespread abuse of the system by relatively well-off Mexicans who take one-way flights to Canada and stay in the country until they are kicked out.
He said unscrupulous immigration consultants in Mexico and the U.S. are coaching people on how to make a refugee claim in Canada.
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"I'm simply saying that, as a matter of policy, we need to do a better job of expediting the processing of false claims, as most other democratic countries do," Mr. Kenney said in an interview yesterday.
Refugee advocates say Mr. Kenney is ill-informed about the reasons why Mexicans are seeking asylum in Canada.
"The Canadian government doesn't believe that Mexicans are genuine refugee cases, or fleeing from genuine persecution in Mexico," said Francisco Rico-Martinez of Toronto's FCJ Refugee Centre.
"If you review the information in Mexico, it's clearly a serious problem in terms of violence, lack of protection from the authorities, corruption, drugs ... so to continue with this idea that Mexicans are economic migrants [who] come and invent stories just to be here in Canada is not sustainable."
More than 8,000 deaths have been linked to drug-related violence in Mexico over the past year, as the government tries to crack down on the powerful cartels. The situation has so alarmed the United States that the Obama administration this week sent 500 federal agents to assist with the battle. The mayor of one major city, Ciudad Juarez, moved his entire family across the border into Texas.
Canadian officials are bracing for even more refugee claims from Mexicans travelling through the United States, rather than just hopping a plane directly to Canada.
Because Mexicans do not require a visa to enter Canada, they are exempt from a Canada-U.S. treaty that requires refugees to make a claim in the first country they enter - called the Safe Third Country Agreement.
"Given the economic reality and reinforced security in the United States, an increase in the number of Mexican asylum seekers at land borders is expected," reads a November report from the CBSA released under Access to Information.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) this week also reported that Canada was seeing a 30-per-cent increase in refugee claims, making it the world's second biggest recipient of such claims.
Mexicans represent a quarter of all refugee claims, with Haiti and Colombia the next major source countries.
Mr. Kenney pointed to the high rejection rate for Mexican claimants - 90 per cent. He underlined that the UNHCR has said Canada has one of the fairest refugee determination systems in the world.
"Neither the government nor Parliament nor the IRB [Immigration and Refugee Board] improvise when it comes to the legal criteria and definition of a refugee," Mr. Kenney said.
Still, Mr. Martinez says 80 to 90 per cent of his clientele are Mexicans fleeing violence and abuse in all parts of Mexico.
Part of the difficulty for refugee applicants, say advocates, is that Immigration and Refugee Board staff judge Mexico a country that is able to protect its citizens and often suggest claimants can simply relocate to another part of Mexico.
But Gloria Nafzinger, a refugee co-ordinator with Amnesty International Canada, says that view is simplistic.
"It's shocking and unconscionable that the minister would be prejudging asylum claims from Mexico," said Ms. Nafzinger.
"While the acceptance rate is low at the Immigration and Refugee Board, the board and Mr. Kenney would do well to seriously investigate the levels of violence that are taking place and look closely at the nature of the claims because there are absolutely serious human-rights concerns with respect to people coming from Mexico."
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Roberto Garduno / fuente: La Jornada
Enganchadores, traficantes y asaltantes, azote de los migrantes indocumentados
Extraoficialmente, en 2008 se concretaron 500 plagios; para la autoridad fueron 200
Ahora los criminales cobran un primer pago y abonos diferidos por liberar a víctimas
La industria del secuestro, con la cual el crimen organizado complementa sus ganancias por el tráfico de drogas, se ha enquistado en la sociedad tijuanense. Estos ilícitos, junto a los 380 homicidios perpetrados en 2007 y los mil 80 de 2008, así como los métodos aplicados por la delincuencia –tortura y desaparición física–, han provocado que empresarios mexicanos, impulsores de la economía en esta frontera, huyan a Estados Unidos para jamás volver.
Tijuana, BC. Para muchos de nosotros Tijuana ya no tiene remedio. Ya no nos preguntamos cómo amaneció hoy, sino ¿cuántos muertos hubo?, ¿a cuántos mataron? y ¿a quiénes secuestraron?
El refugio de empresarios mexicanos en territorio de Estados Unidos, a consecuencia del crecimiento de plagios y extorsiones, manifiesta el enquistamiento de la industria del secuestro en lo más profundo de la sociedad tijuanense, que complementa las ganancias por el tráfico de drogas en Tijuana, Rosarito, Ensenada y Mexicali.
Con la rabia que sólo puede sentir una persona a quien le fue robada parte de la dignidad humana, porque nos amenazaron, nos extorsionaron y nos secuestraron
, el testimonio de un prominente empresario revela cómo la inseguridad lo arrastró a abandonar la ciudad, sus empresas maquiladoras, comercios y una agencia de importación.
Cálculos extraoficiales indican que en 2008 se concretaron más de 500 secuestros. La numeralia oficial sólo da cuenta de 200.
–¿Usted permanecerá en Tijuana? –se le pregunta.
–Mis tres hijos fueron amenazados. Atemorizados, cedieron al chantaje y le pagaban a una banda. ¡Imagínese! Esos cabrones hasta recibo con sello les extendieron. Aun así, uno de los tres fue secuestrado. Gracias al cielo lo liberaron. Ahora los otros dos, con sus familias, ya viven del otro lado, ¿y sabe cuándo van a poner un pie en México? ¡Nunca! Yo vine a esta ciudad, cuando era joven, a trabajar; pensaba que nunca me iría, pero ya estoy arreglando mi salida.
Derecho de piso
Los habitantes de la región desempeñan sus actividades entre oleadas de violencia con matices dramáticos. Además, entre los fenómenos extendidos en la franja fronteriza se encuentra el cobro por derecho de piso (un impuesto
ilegal) o pago de protección.
Al incremento en el número de muertos –en 2007 los homicidios producidos por la violencia del crimen organizado sumaron 380, y en 2008 mil 80–, se añaden los métodos despiadados de tortura y desaparición física.
Las distintas formas de ejecución se han incorporado al vocabulario fronterizo cotidiano: decapitados, ahorcados, ametrallados, cercenados y disueltos en ácido infunden en el ánimo de la población un temor manifiesto e impulsan la migración, por razones de seguridad, al lado estadunidense.
Tonatiuh Guillén, presidente del Colegio de la Frontera Norte, refiere que el tejido social en Tijuana se sostendrá a pesar del fenómeno de migración de empresarios mexicanos hacia el sur del estado de California, por temor al secuestro.
No digo que no haya empresarios que hayan optado por residir en el sur de Estados Unidos por causa del secuestro y la extorsión; sin excluir este tipo de actos asociados a la seguridad, el hecho duro es que esta estructura social y económica sobrevive y va a sobrevivir bien.
La tarifa que aplican los delincuentes a un plagiado asciende a un millón de dólares, en promedio. Datos de la Procuraduría General de la República indican que el número de personas secuestradas en Tijuana durante 2008 superó las 200. No obstante, el subregistro advierte que el número superaría el medio millar.
Ahora, los delincuentes instauraron un sistema de crédito para favorecer
al secuestrado. Si exigen un millón de dólares y la familia de la víctima declara que carece de posibilidades de pago, el tope para concretar la liberación es de 200 mil dólares y los 800 mil restantes se abonan en pagos diferidos.
La industria del secuestro está organizada en células. Una se encarga de perpetrar el plagio; otra cuida a la persona privada de su libertad; una más negocia el monto del rescate, y otra el método del cobro.
Entre ellos no se conocen. “Los jefes, quienes ordenan los plagios, son los capos de los cárteles de la droga”, refiere Enrique, un tijuanense que ya fue víctima de una extorsión.
Tijuana y la zona fronteriza con el sur de Estados Unidos arrastra un historial de descomposición por la guerra entre las bandas que pretenden dominar la plaza.
En Tijuana y Mexicali, uno de los principales problemas para los migrantes son las bandas delictivas. Por la desesperación de llegar a Estados Unidos, cuando intentan cruzar por la montaña y el desierto, quienes pretenden arribar sin documentos a ese país se ven sometidos a una maraña de colusión entre el enganchador, el traficante y el asaltante. Éstos les arrebatan todas sus pertenencias, incluyendo la ropa que llevan puesta.
“Muchas veces las autoridades son las que extorsionan a los migrantes. Además, no hay vigilancia en la zona de cruce, que es una tierra de nadie; de repente no se sabe quién es el que cuida. Desde hace 20 años el cruce por la zona de la montaña y el desierto coloca en situación de gravísima vulnerabilidad a los migrantes.
Desde que se aplicó el Operativo Guardián (1995) a la fecha, van más de 5 mil 800 indocumentados que mueren en toda la frontera. Pero el fenómeno no se va a detener. Los migrantes van a seguir cruzando, lamentablemente, sobre lugares más peligrosos
, sostiene Esmeralda Siu, de la Casa del Migrante.
Datos del Instituto Nacional de Migración señalan que el número de deportados de Estados Unidos a Tijuana es entre 600 y 700 mujeres y hombres cada día.
El año pasado el número total de deportados fue de 228 mil en el estado de Baja California; de ellos, 70 por ciento llegó a la ciudad de Tijuana.
Asimismo, el padre Luis Kendzierski, director de la Casa del Migrante, expresa que la policía municipal de Tijuana forma parte de la delincuencia que asalta a las personas que intentan llegar a Estados Unidos sin documentos.
“La violencia que sufre el migrante en Tijuana proviene de la policía municipal, que los detiene y los asalta. Otra queja de esas personas es contra los ‘bajadores’ que están en la zona de cruce. En muchos lugares hay bandas con armas largas, y ahí los esperan para quitarles todo lo que traigan, unos tenis buenos, una chamarra, dinero.
Operan en las zonas inhóspitas, allá por el desierto de Altar, en las montañas, donde se esconden, y además están coludidos con las autoridades.
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