Tenosique, Tabasco, August 17, 2020.
END THE CLIMATE OF HARASSMENT TOWARDS MIGRANTS ON THE SOUTHERN BORDER
To all Civil Society Organizations
To the Municipal, State and Federal Authorities:
As the team responsible for accompanying migrants in La 72, a refugee home for migrants, we express our outrage and make known through this statement the prevailing situation in the surroundings of our shelter in Tenosique, Tabasco and at the same time we want to bring to public awareness a series of humiliations and harassment and the violation of human rights of our Central American brothers.
From our humanitarian work of protection and accompaniment to the migrant brothers in La 72, we urge the Mexican government at it various levels to confront honestly and put an end to the pressure from the Federal Police and the National Institute of Migration, to remind them that our humanitarian work requires us to assure a dignified life for all migrants and demand free movement, as well as to end acts of espionage that increase the climate of hostility and persecution towards the vulnerable groups of migrant families that are settled in the space next to La 72.
On Monday, August 17 at dawn, the State Patrol that is continually stationed on the soccer field, turned on its alarm turret at about 2 in the morning, causing alarm the migrant population. On the same day, Monday, the 17th, at around 3 in the afternoon, Federal Patrol 13350 stationed themselves in front of the shelter to take photographs of the migrant population and the shelter, without any authorization.
Through this means we unite to denounce the serious situations of violence and harassment of those who fight for the defense of human rights and we remind the patrols that they must respect community spaces of justice and freedom.
We call out and denounce the authorities’ pressure on our operations and towards our work in defense of individual guarantees and the human rights of migrants.