(Mexico City, May 29, 2023, cimac news).- Between January 1 and March 31, 2023, 20,095 migrant children and adolescents were arrested in Mexico – almost double the figure for the same period last year. Of these, 1,362 minors were deported, with most of the deportations being carried out in Chiapas. According to the network for the Children’s Rights and youth in Chiapas REDIAS (Red por los Derechos de las Infancias y Adolescencias en Chiapas), the state is also the place where the most children and young people deported from the USA live nationwide.
From January to March 2022, almost 12,000 migrant children were arrested by the migration authorities in Mexico, according to Interior Ministry figures verified by REDIAS. This year the numbers have almost doubled. What is also new is that the arrested children and young people come from 71 different countries of origin.
Most children and young people come from South America, above all from Ecuador (30 percent), Venezuela (23 percent), but also from Chile and Honduras (seven percent). About five percent of the children and young people come from Brazil, Angola and Guatemala.
Mexico arrested 20,000 migrant minors this year
This year, more than half (51 percent) of the more than 20,000 arrests so far have been in Chiapas, where authorities arrested 10,257 children and teenagers in the first three months of the year. According to the information, 61 percent of the children and young people arrested nationwide are said to have abandoned their migration plans, while a further 22 percent are still in custody. Five percent are still in the process of clarifying the respective status. 6.8 percent have already been deported.
That 6.8 percent translates into around 450 deportations of minors per month, a significant portion of which takes place in Chiapas.
The situation of migrant children in Chiapas
Between January and March 2023, Mexico deported 697 migrant children. Chiapas is in third place: In March alone, Mexico had 185 fleeing underage migrants deported.
But Chiapas is not only at the forefront when it comes to deportations: According to studies by REDIAS, the US government deported 7,636 Mexican migrant children in the first three months of this year. The majority of these are children and young people from Chiapas. This makes the state the number one nationwide for the deportation of children and adolescents from the United States; in 2021, Chiapas was already in second place in this regard.
As of March 2023, the US government has deported 1,300 children and youth from Chiapas, or 377 deportations per month. Across the country, 587 children and young people are affected by deportations every week.
According to REDIAS, two thirds of the underage migrants (66 percent) are children under the age of twelve who are traveling with a companion.
Besides Chiapas, Guerrero and Tamaulipas are also among the Mexican states with the most deportations of minors from the USA. REDIAS states that 39 percent of deportations of minors from the United States take place in these three states.
The majority of the deported children and young people are therefore boys between the ages of 12 and 17 who have decided to cross the northern border of Mexico alone – despite the great risks that this poses.
Deportation of migrant children in Chiapas von News Pool Latin America is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 international.