2014-07-08 11:36:00

Mexico seeks to protect migrants


(Vatican Radio) Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto is launching a program to protect immigrants from Central and South America, who are crossing into Mexico in droves to try to reach the United States. A very high proportion of migrants are undocumented.

In announcing the South Frontier Program, Peña Nieto explains one major aim is to help protect immigrants crossing through Mexico or on their return journey to their countries of origin. This will include social programs and closer cooperation with their countries of origin. He is also pledging to improve crossing points to better international security on Mexico's southern border and further afield.

Human rights groups say that up to 20,000 of these migrants annually disappear while trying to cross Mexico to get to the United States.

Many fall victim to drug cartels that demand ransom from their families or force them to join organized crime. The alternative is death. In recent years, many bodies have been unearthed in clandestine mass burial grounds. Many of the corpses go unidentified and unclaimed.

Listen to the report by James Blears








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