Rafto laureate Bishop Raúl Vera launches Transmigrant Visa proposal

Bishop Raúl Vera, the 2010 Rafto Prize laureate, proposed on 10 March in Mexico that a temporary visa for migrants who travel through the country be established, as part of the revision of state’s migration law. The purpose of such a visa should be to make the several hundred thousand migrants passing through the country each year less vulnerable to assault.

This issue has grown into a very severe human rights problem in Mexico in recent years.

Migration law criminalizes people
The current migration law of Mexico criminalizes people who travel across the country to find work in the United States.

Bishop Raúl Vera (left) and a large group of human rights organizations criticize that the proposed revision of the law recently presented will maintain the illegal status of such migrants, and continue to induce them to use clandestine means of transportation that expose them to a high risk of being violated by organized criminal groups.

22 000 immigrants kidnapped annually
Human rights researchers confirm the range and gravity of abuse of migrants passing through Mexico.

Luis Arriaga Valenzuela, director of the Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Center (Center Prodh), emphasized the range and gravity of the situation by referring to official statistics indicating that more than 22 000 immigrants are kidnapped by criminal gangs every year.

Often this is done in collaboration with government officials. This practice particularly affects female migrants, most of them to be sexually abused at some point along their route through Mexico. The situation has been strongly condemned by international human rights bodies.

Transmigrant Visa to provide protection, reduce criminal revenue
Alejandro Anaya Muñoz, researcher at the Center for Economic Research and Education (CIDE), shared data from his studies of migration, which served to strengthen the assumption of a connection between the abuse, and the fact that migrants travel in a clandestine manner and by means of transport which makes them vulnerable to attack and kidnapping.

Bishop Vera pointed out that by offering the migrants the status of Legal Transmigrants for a period of two months, they will be able to use public transport and thereby greatly reduce the risk of being assaulted or kidnapped.

In addition to decrease the risk of abuse for the several hundred thousand migrants passing, such an arrangement will also deprive criminal gangs of some of the revenue generated by robbery and extortion, which may amount to as much 50 million U.S. dollars annually.

The arrangement may also contribute to a significant reduction of the expenses of the state of Mexico, both financially and in terms of manpower, and thereby make more resources available to deal with other urgent matters.

Moral authority of Mexico challenged

Left: Alejandro Anaya Munoz (CIDE), Luis Arriaga Valenzuela (Center Prodth) and Bishop Jose Raul Vera Lopez during the press conference on transmigrant visa issue on 10 March 2011 in Mexico City.

Bishop Raúl Vera in a press conference arranged in Mexico City on 10 March argued that a better handling of this huge humanitarian crisis is not only a moral obligation towards the migrants themselves.

He also pointed out that only by itself securing the most basic respect and protection of the human rights of migrants in Mexico, can the Mexican government secure the moral authority necessary to make similar demands of respect and protection for Mexican migrants living in the USA.

The Bishop finally stated that it is not the responsibility of the state of Mexico to erect a wall against the tide of Latin-American migration flowing to the north. On the contrary, he maintained that the aim of migration laws should be to protect the basic rights of migrants looking for a decent life for themselves and their families.

Support the proposal for a Transmigrant Visa
You can find the full text of the proposal for a Transmigrant Visa here.

Both organizations and individuals are welcome to give their support to it via the Rafto Foundation. Please specify Title, Name, Organization, Country, and if possible mail your logo to iver.orstavik(at)rafto.no

Background
José Raúl Vera López (65), the Catholic bishop of Saltillo, Northern Mexico, is characterized as one of the most courageous critics of human rights violations in today’s Mexico. Endangering his own security, he speaks out loudly and without fear against human rights violations, corruption, power abuses and the absence of the rule of law.