Study: Migrant detentions in Mexico up 73 percent since 2014

FILE - In this June 20, 2014 file photo, Central American migrants wait atop the freight train they had been traveling north on, as it starts to rain after the train suffered a minor derailment outside Reforma de Pineda, Chiapas state, Mexico. Mexico detained 73 percent more migrants since the announcement of an operation to shore up security on its Southern Border, according to a study released Wednesday by human rights and migrants’ advocates groups. The study found that about 168,000 migrants were detained in Mexico from July 2014 to June of this year, up from some 97,000 during the previous 12-month period. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File) FILE - In this June 20, 2014 file photo, Central American migrants wait atop the freight train they had been traveling north on, as it starts to rain after the train suffered a minor derailment outside Reforma de Pineda, Chiapas state, Mexico. Mexico detained 73 percent more migrants since the announcement of an operation to shore up security on its Southern Border, according to a study released Wednesday by human rights and migrants’ advocates groups. The study found that about 168,000 migrants were detained in Mexico from July 2014 to June of this year, up from some 97,000 during the previous 12-month period. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)

By Associated Press November 18, 2015 2 min read

MEXICO CITY (AP) – Mexico detained 73 percent more migrants since the announcement of an operation to shore up security on its Southern Border, according to a study released Wednesday by human rights and migrants’ advocates groups.

The study found that about 168,000 migrants were detained in Mexico from July 2014 to June of this year, up from some 97,000 during the previous 12-month period.

It was based on a government data, case documentation from migrants’ shelters, interviews with authorities, migrants and advocates and other sources.

Mexico announced its Southern Border Program in the summer of 2014, a time when the United States was experiencing a large spike in unaccompanied child migrants arriving at its own southern border. Many were Central American children fleeing violence in their home countries.

The Washington Office on Latin America, or WOLA, a U.S.-based advocacy group which helped prepare the report, said in an executive summary that the increased migration enforcement has “worrying implications” for human rights, due to reports of migrants being injured or killed during operations.