When Yolani Del Carmen Alaña De la Rosa, a 34-year-old Venezuelan, landed in Mexico City on December 3, 2021, she thought things were going to be different. Originally from Maracaibo, Zulia state, in the northwest of her country, this was the third time she landed in the country to visit her family, resident in Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz. The other two had been returned to Colombia, from where she traveled, but this time she was carrying everything the authorities requested: a valid passport and a letter of invitation signed by her uncles.
When he arrived at the window he saw that everything was starting to twist. He was removed to a secluded space and told that he would not be allowed to enter Mexico. She, who arrived willing to fight her case, filed an amparo through her relatives. That was the beginning of 21 days locked in the airport facilities known as La Burbuja, an opaque space managed by the National Institute of Migration (INM) but that, technically, is not yet Mexico.
“It was too inhumane,” she says from the Colombian guajira about her stay in an overcrowded space where up to 80 people were concentrated. She says that for 20 days she was harassed by immigration agents, who blamed her for having filed an amparo. He has diabetes, but was never offered medicine. And on many occasions she depended on the food of other passengers because they did not offer food to her. Until one day, after a rise in tension that caused him to have a heavy nosebleed, he decided to desist from the amparo. “It scared me. I thought I was going to die there. So I called the guard and told him I would sign whatever they told me,” he explains.
Del Carmen’s story is an extreme reflection of the abuse that many foreigners suffer when they land in Mexico and are isolated in INM facilities until they are returned to their country. They never receive explanations, beyond the fact that they do not meet the requirements of entry to the country. The migratory wall installed by the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador after its agreements with Washington has an extension in airports. Human rights organizations denounce that these measures are discriminatory and violate rights such as access to asylum. Animal Político requested comments from the National Institute of Migration (INM) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) but at press time it had not received a response.
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Four times more returns
In total, Mexico forced 72,895 people to turn around during 2021, which means an average of almost 200 expulsions per day. The number of foreigners forced to return to their country is four times higher than in 2020 (16,286) and more than double that in 2019 (31,008). The figures grew exponentially since 2010, when only 1,650 people were rejected at airports because the INM considered that they did not meet the requirements to enter the country. With more than 12 million entry events in a whole year, rejections barely account for 0.5% of people trying to reach Mexico. However, in the nationalities most punished by this control, the figures shoot up to 10% in the case of Ecuadorians last year.
The airport of Mexico City, with more than 40 thousand rejections, and that of Cancun, Quintana Roo, with almost 30 thousand, concentrate almost all of the cases. The next would be that of Monterrey, Nuevo León, where only a thousand people were forced to return.
The increase in the number of people who are not allowed to enter Mexican territory has to do with control to prevent migration to the United States. The largest flow to the north remains Central America and arrives by land, across the southern border. However, there are other nationalities that travel by plane and for whom Mexico is one more stop on their way to the border. This is the case of Ecuador, Venezuela, Brazil and Colombia, the four countries with the highest number of airport rejections. Tourists from the first three Mexico has already been imposed a visa “to order migratory flows and combat abuse by networks of criminal organizations dedicated to the illicit trafficking of people,” as explained by the SRE when it announced that it was reactivating the procedure for Brazilian citizens. This measure has not yet turned against the Mexican population, which can still travel to South American countries without being required to provide the same documents that its authorities request.
One in ten Ecuadorians
Ecuador is the country with the highest number of people who were rejected upon landing in the last three years. In total, 27,750 were returned since 2019, although the last year it was the one with the most expulsions, with 15,544. This means that one in ten Ecuadorians who landed in Mexico last year were returned to their country.
Since the end of 2018 Ecuador was exempt from a visa for its tourists. The measure, however, was seen as an incentive for irregular migration. In fact, in fiscal year 2021 (between October 2020 and September 2021), a total of 97,074 Ecuadorians were intercepted at the U.S. border. In September, the Mexican government again imposed an obligation to access a visa for those traveling from Ecuador. Among the requirements: prove that you have $ 2,593 in the account or have a home in property or a stable job. The visa obligation expires on March 22, but it is likely that the Foreign Ministry will decide to maintain the measure. Especially, if you take into account its success in curbing the migratory flow. In August 2021, 17,682 Ecuadorians were intercepted by CBP (Customs and Border Protection), in September there were 7,419 and in October, with the visa already in force, 817.
Venezuela is the second country with the most airport rejections. In total, 17,410 in the last three years, with a strong peak in 2021, where 11,234 people were expelled, which represents 6.55% of the people who tried to enter. The country is suffering from a serious political and humanitarian crisis that has led 5.4 million people to leave it, according to data from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Of those, just over 6,000 asked for asylum in Mexico last year and just over 50,000 were intercepted at the U.S. border. The SRE imposed the visa for the Venezuelan population on January 21, arguing that many of those arriving by plane were actually seeking to reach the northern border. The increase in the difficulties to reach Mexico by plane has caused Venezuelans to be observed on routes that until now did not transit, such as the one that travels on foot throughout the continent.
Brazil is another country with a high number of rejections and to which Mexico has also imposed a visa. In this case the figure skyrocketed in 2021, when 9,836 people were returned (3.3% of those who arrived), while the previous years were 1,128 and 2,425. In this case, the mass migration of people of Haitian origin with children born in Brazil is likely to have had an impact.
The last country is Colombia. In 2021, 9,625 people were rejected; in 2020, 3 thousand 693 and in 2019, 5 thousand 842. Animal Político documented one of these expulsions last December, when it told the story of Edgar Patiño Hormaza. This is a 67-year-old university professor who was traveling to La Paz, Baja California Sur, when he was arrested, held incommunicado and returned to Bogotá.
Read more: AMLO’s government also militarizes the detention of migrants: 82% involved soldiers and police
Complaints to the CNDH
The detention and return policy at airports has provoked complaints from human rights organizations. The most relevant case was that of the Afghan couple who traveled from Turkey to apply for asylum but were rejected in Mexico City. Finally, when the facts transpired, the SRE authorized their return as refugees. However, not all cases reached the media and it is unknown how many people were expelled before they could ask for protection.
“There are no established criteria that explain why one person is rejected and the other is not,” said Gretchen Kuhner, director of the Institute for Women in Migration (Imumi). In his opinion, this policy violates the right to seek refuge. In addition, he questioned the opacity existing in the spaces in which foreigners are held incommunicado before returning them to their country.
“The INM’s monopoly in these spaces is unsustainable,” said Ana Saiz, director of Sin Fronteras. “There should be the presence of the CNDH, of Comar, of Conapred,” he said. According to the CNDH, between July 1 and December 22, ten complaints were registered in relation to these spaces at the airports: three of them were for rejections and another seven for return. None yet has a recommendation. “We have to review the procedures, because they seem very different according to nationalities,” warned the activist, who considered that racial profiling may be taking place.
Finally, Saiz considered that the focus must be on possible corruption. The INM acknowledged at the beginning of the year that it had made 105 officials available to the Internal Control Body and gave as an example a case in which people of Venezuelan origin placed $100 bills in their passports, which may point to a modus operandi.
Last year closed as the year with the highest number of detentions at the hands of the INM: more than 252 thousand without counting the December registration. The increase in expulsions at airports is part of this immigration control system that Mexico denies is imposed by its agreements with the United States.
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