In Mexico, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) supports communities affected by violence and a growing number of refugees and migrants traveling within the country in search of safety. After being forced from their homes due to extreme violence or poverty in their home countries, many have experienced ill treatment and a lack of access to medical care and basic services like proper shelter along their journeys north.
MSF teams provide humanitarian aid, medical services, and mental health support to people at various points along the migration route through Mexico. We have also been advocating for the termination of harmful policies like Title 42, a US public health order that has been misused during the COVID-19 pandemic to effectively block access to asylum. People seeking asylum in the US have been sent back to Mexico or to their countries of origin without due process. While a federal judge ordered the Biden administration to stop using this policy yesterday, we are calling on the US to commit to permanently ending this harmful policy and ensuring people's safety at the border. Shortly before this court ruling, the Biden administration had expanded Title 42 to include Venezuelans.
MSF International President Dr. Christos Christou visited Mexico earlier this month and describes his experience.
1. What did you see while visiting MSF’s projects in Mexico?
The primary objective of my visit was to understand and see firsthand what was happening there in the places where we provide primary health care and mental health support.
During my time in Mexico, I visited our Comprehensive Care Center [known by its Spanish acronym El CAI] in Mexico City that helps people—mostly migrants—who have experienced [torture and] ill treatment. In the past, we used to call the people here victims of torture. But now we want to empower these people who have been victims but have survived. Here, I saw families, including little kids, who have experienced a lot of trauma, including sexual violence and torture during their journeys towards safety.
Then I had the opportunity to visit Reynosa—an infamous place on the border with the US, where, these days, we see thousands of people, including families, single adults, and little kids without a place to sleep, access to basic health services, clean water, or adequate hygiene conditions. The very few shelters there have limited capacity and cannot accommodate everyone. So there are people piling up outside the shelters.
Groups of refugees and migrants have also [gathered] in other urban centers in the country, many of them in the south. That’s why MSF is expanding activities in the south, including in places where we were not working before, like San Pedro Tapanatepec. This small town has received a few thousand migrants over the last few weeks. In many places across the country, there aren’t many or any groups providing aid because of security concerns or a lack of funding.
