Following last week's signing of a cooperation agreement between
IOM and Mexico's National Human Rights Commission (CNDH by its
Spanish acronym), a mass information campaign was launched in the
northern border city of Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua.

The agreement between IOM and CNDH and the new information
campaign – "No más Trata de Personas", No More Human
Trafficking – are focusing on combating human trafficking,
the kidnapping of migrants, and other human rights violations
against migrants, by raising awareness, defending and promoting the
human rights of all migrants, and providing assistance to the most
vulnerable.

"This cooperation agreement is vital for the two organizations
to join forces to uphold the human rights of migrants, especially
those most vulnerable – women, children, and unaccompanied
minors," said Thomas Lothar Weiss, IOM Chief of Mission in
Mexico.

Also, as part of the agreement, research on human trafficking
and the kidnapping of migrants will be carried out, with the aim of
compiling the necessary data and information needed to combat these
crimes.

According to a 2009 investigation by CNDH, some 10,000 migrants
were victims of kidnapping over a period of six months that year,
but estimates put that number much higher.  Most of the
kidnapping victims are migrants from Central America, mainly
Honduras and Guatemala. Criminal groups along the route north have
adopted kidnapping of migrants as a new way to finance their
operations with ransoms going between 500 and 3,000 US dollars. If
migrants' families are unable to pay and the victims are unwilling
to work with their kidnappers, they are murdered, often in large
groups, such as in the recent mass murder of 72 migrants in San
Fernando, Tamaulipas, along the Mexican Northern Border.

The information campaign is part of IOM's regional counter
trafficking project funded by the US State Department Bureau
of Population Refugees and Migration (PRM).  Mexico is the
fifth country in the region to launch the regional campaign; other
countries include Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala and
Nicaragua.

Television and radio spots, as well as a radio soap opera, will
carry the message to audiences in the northern and southern border
cities of Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua and Tapachula, Chiapas; cities
where IOM has sub-offices and carries out anti-trafficking
activities.

The states of Chihuahua and Chiapas are places of origin,
transit and destination for migrants, many of whom are vulnerable
to human trafficking.

According to estimates provided by CNDH, each year more than
20,000 persons fall victim to trafficking in Mexico, mainly in
border areas and in tourist destinations.

Since 2005, IOM has provided assistance to 176 victims of
trafficking, 80 per cent of whom were found and assisted along
Mexico's southern border.  The vast majority are from Central
America.

For more information, please contact:

Hélène Le Goff

IOM México

Tel: +52 55 55 36 39 22

E-mail: "mailto:hlegoff@iom.int">hlegoff@iom.int