Human Rights Commission asks to locate 95 missing migrants in Mexico’s Tamaulipas

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) recommended Mexican authorities locate approximately 95 migrants who disappeared while in transit in the northern state of Tamaulipas in 2019.

In a statement, the body called on Tamaulipas authorities, the Attorney General’s Office (FGR), and the National Migration Institute (INM) to improve protocols for searching for missing persons and avoid similar cases by training their officials.

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The CNDH recalled that the migrants were kidnapped while traveling in various buses in Tamaulipas on February 19, 20, and 27 and on March 7 and 12, 2019.

It pointed out that after documenting the cases, it was able to verify violations of human rights to security, access to justice and the truth, as well as to the principle of the best interest of children and adolescents, due to the delay and irregular integration of the investigation files.

It warned that the public security agencies belonging to the federal and Tamaulipas governments did not guarantee the victims’ right to public safety, nor did they implement strategies and public policies that would guarantee respect for their human rights.

Likewise, they failed to apply the procedures and legal instruments related to searching for persons and refused to provide information to this National Commission.

Given this, the CNDH requested the authorities to celebrate an inter-institutional agreement to identify the areas in which the illegal deprivation of freedom of bus passengers occurs and the transit routes of people in the context of international migration in that state.

This is to implement security operations that include all high-risk areas for the kidnapping of migrants and avoid similar events.

It also requested to collaborate “extensively” in the processing and following the complaints filed before the Internal Control Bodies in each agency, against the responsible authorities, for the omissions described in the recommendation.

Likewise, it recommended providing comprehensive training courses on human rights related to applying the protocols in the General Law on Forced Disappearance of Persons, Disappearance Committed by Private Parties, and the National System for the Search for Persons.

It requested the FGR that, based on identifying the direct and, if applicable, indirect victims of these events, be registered in the National Registry of Victims and be given the medical and psychological attention they require, in addition to fair compensation and/or indemnification, so that they may have access to full reparation as provided for in the General Law on Victims.

It also recommended the training of INM authorities; Simultaneously, it asked the National Commission for the Search of Persons to continue, together with the FGR, with the location of the approximately 95 persons related to the processing of the investigations.

Meanwhile, the State Prosecutor’s Office was asked to locate the investigation files that exist for kidnapping and/or deprivation of liberty of migrants in the state and after that, to analyze them and design a diagnosis on the situation of criminal incidence in that state, as well as to identify criminal groups.