Access to social networks, messaging and geolocation through mobile devices have changed the way migrants seek to reach the United States through Mexicowhich exposes them to greater risks in their dealings with human traffickers.
This is reflected in the new study by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) “Information and communication technologies and the smuggling of migrants in Central America, Mexico and the Dominican Republic”, which shows cow criminal networks and migrants adapt to the technological context.
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“The networks of migrant smuggling modus operandi constantly changing and they use technology to carry out their activities,” explained the research officer of the IOM’s Mesoamerica-Caribbean Regional Program on Migration, Estela Aragón, in an interview with EFE.
This phenomenon, which entails that “coyotes”, as migrant smugglers are known, use platforms such as TikTok to offer your services or monitor the journey of your customers through instant messagingwas accentuated as a result of the pandemic and the restrictions on movement, including migratory ones.
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There is a very important risk of fraud
“There is a very important risk of fraud. (Migrants) do not even have a person in front of them and many times the payments are made and the service is received illegally,” Aragón explained.
Being absent on the migration path, he added, coyotes can cut off contact when it’s convenient for their safety, so the migrant “assumes all the risk”.
But the report also highlights the benefits that technologies bring migrants to the access information about routes, maps and the possibility of being in contact with their relatives.
Although 64% of migrants admitted to using technologies, the majority are people between the ages of 26 and 35, while those over 46 hardly use them.
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The organization interviewed 531 adult migrants from Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Haiti, Guatemala, Venezuela, Guinea, Italy or Jordan, all subject to human trafficking networks, to those who questioned about the use they made of technologies.
The questionnaires were carried out at different points on the migratory route to the United States, starting in Panama and going through Costa Rica, Honduras and several Mexican states such as Chiapas, Oaxaca or San Luis Potosí.
Coyotes in Mexico
The researcher of the College of the Northern Border (Colef) María Eugenia Anguiano explained to EFE the risks that migrants face when crossing through Mexico, essential to reach the United States.
The northern Mexican border, he said, becomes “a funnel” in which organized crime takes the reins of migrant smuggling and “they steal, assault, kill and disappear.”
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Many start the route in Mexico City and absolutely all the guide is usually through instant messaging
However, the technological transition of these criminal networks also exposes migrants to new risks such as the violation of digital privacy, trafficking or online sexual exploitation.
“Technologies are used a lot in the context of Mexico to guide migrants through the desert. Many start the route in Mexico City and absolutely all the guidance is usually through instant messaging,” added Aragón.
The “coyotes”, he continued, remotely monitor the location of the people who have contracted their services and tell them where and how to cross through northern Mexico.
In this way, they avoid the risk of being located by the authorities and leave the migrants “desamparos”.
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Role of the authorities
The report recommends that the authorities of the countries involved in the migratory routes to United States territory they must adopt tools to protect and investigate the crimes to which migrants are exposedincluding technological ones.
There are significant efforts by the Mexican authorities in order to promote a
orderly migration
and by regular routes
“There are significant efforts by the Mexican authorities to promote orderly migration through regular channels. And there is a presence on social networks to combat illicit trafficking and provide reliable information,” the IOM researcher stressed.
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Anguiano considered that the US application CBP One, designed to expedite the procedures to request asylum in the country and launched recently, “is a clear example of the use of technology for the benefit of migration management.
However, over the last month, migrants stranded at the border have warned of the saturation and failures that the tool has presented. The region is experiencing a record migratory flow, with 2.76 million undocumented immigrants detained at the United States border with Mexico in fiscal year 2022.
EFE
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