HomeNewsBrief160,000 Mexicans Displaced in 2011, Most by Drug Violence: UN
BRIEF

160,000 Mexicans Displaced in 2011, Most by Drug Violence: UN

MEXICO / 20 APR 2012 BY CHRISTOPHER LOOFT EN

A new report by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees says 160,000 people were internally displaced in Mexico last year, most of them as a result of the drug war, an often-overlooked dimension of the country's public security crisis.

The states that saw the highest rates of displacement were Chihuahua, Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Durango, Sinaloa, Michoacan and Guerrero -- all among the worst hit by drug violence. The report estimates that 24,500 people fled Ciudad Juarez alone.

The report criticizes the Mexican government's response to the problem, noting that its military approach to organized crime does not include a strategy to deal with internal refugees.

The UN's High Commissioner for Refugees said in a press conference that the Mexican government had not recognised the existence of refugees displaced by the war on drugs, reports Frontera.

InSight Crime Analysis

Internal displacement is an impact of Mexico's drug war that is often overlooked. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Center said in a December 2011 report that refugees within the state of Chihuahua continued to face violence after uprooting, and that small business owners who fled to Veracruz from Chihuahua and Michoacan were still targeted by organized criminal groups there. The displaced have difficulty finding employment; in the central Mexican state of Queretaro, around 60 percent of job applications are reportedly made by refugees from the north.

In addition to internal displacement, Mexico's high rates of violence have forced people to flee abroad, leading more and more to seek asylum in the US. From 2006 to 2008 the number of Mexicans seeking asylum in the US as a result of violence increased 50-fold. The vast majority are turned away. In fiscal year 2010, less than 50 of Mexico's 3,231 asylum seekers were accepted, according to the US Department of Justice's statistics.

Still, despite the large number of people affected, Mexico has a long way to go before its level of displacement is anything like that of Colombia. Comparisons are often made between the two countries' struggles against drug trafficking. In the South American country, the internal conflict is thought to have displaced more than 10 percent of the population, compared to some 0.2 percent for Mexico.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Tags

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

COLOMBIA / 28 JUL 2021

Mexico's largest criminal groups are outsourcing the retrieval of cocaine shipments to smaller groups posing as fishing cooperatives, providing another…

EL MENCHO / 14 MAY 2021

In some regions of Mexico, family members who came up empty-handed this Mother's Day were bailed out by the Jalisco…

JALISCO CARTEL / 22 JUL 2022

El Chapo's sons, the Jalisco Cartel, more - a free-for-all may be happening in Sonora after the fall of Rafael…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

Venezuela Coverage Continues to be Highlighted

3 MAR 2023

This week, InSight Crime co-director Jeremy McDermott was the featured guest on the Americas Quarterly podcast, where he provided an expert overview of the changing dynamics…

THE ORGANIZATION

Venezuela's Organized Crime Top 10 Attracts Attention

24 FEB 2023

Last week, InSight Crime published its ranking of Venezuela’s ten organized crime groups to accompany the launch of the Venezuela Organized Crime Observatory. Read…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime on El País Podcast

10 FEB 2023

This week, InSight Crime co-founder, Jeremy McDermott, was among experts featured in an El País podcast on the progress of Colombia’s nascent peace process.

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Interviewed by Associated Press

3 FEB 2023

This week, InSight Crime’s Co-director Jeremy McDermott was interviewed by the Associated Press on developments in Haiti as the country continues its prolonged collapse. McDermott’s words were republished around the world,…

THE ORGANIZATION

Escaping Barrio 18

27 JAN 2023

Last week, InSight Crime published an investigation charting the story of Desafío, a 28-year-old Barrio 18 gang member who is desperate to escape gang life. But there’s one problem: he’s…