3 Jan 2010

Migrants face dangers in Mexico

El Universal, an influential Mexican newspaper, says that there is increasing sex trafficking by drug-linked gangs who are taking advantage of the Guatemalan and Honduran US-borderwomen and children passing through the country.

They are frequently hauled off the trains and sold into sex slavery for as little as $40.
At present there are 20,000 prostitutes from Central America in Mexican brothels according to El Universal.

Susanah says that the young girls are especially at risk. "There are girls that are 15, 16 years old, and those are the ones most at danger of being abused."

Even the Mexican contractors that migrants rely on to guide them are not to be trusted. Many turn their charges over to be kidnapped by gangs who then beat them to obtain phone numbers of family members in the US. Once they have the numbers they call these relatives to extract a ransom. Al Jazeera

Also see Central American immigrants seek rights in Mexico - azcentral.com