Article by PBI-Canada

On April 13, the Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project published and began circulating its April 2020 e-newsletter.

In it PBI-Mexico notes, “Like most of the organizations that we accompany in the country, we took strict confinement protection measures prior to the Mexican government decree of phase 2 of the pandemic and the declaration of a national health emergency.”

“Despite the distance, we maintain fluid communication with our accompanied organizations, as well as Mexican and international authorities, international organizations and bodies, and Mexican civil society.”

PBI-Mexico further affirms, “Faced with the possibility of a worsening human rights situation in the country, we will continue to provide remote accompaniment, permanent monitoring and analysis, and information to the international community and relevant authorities.”

The newsletter also notes the migrant rights advocacy tour that was to take place in Canada from March 14-19 but had to be postponed due to the pandemic.

That tour was to feature Javier Martinez from the Saltillo Migrant Shelter.

The Latin American Working Group interviewed Javier just prior to our planned tour and recently reported, “Javier expressed that all of the actions against the shelter and the migrants it helps are attempts to discredit and delegitimize their work. This pressure is not arbitrary or without cause; it is a direct result of the Trump Administration’s efforts to prevent migrants and asylum seekers from accessing the United States.”

At the same time, Canada has been looking at ways to “modernize” the Canada-US Safe Third Country Agreement to make it harder for migrants from Latin America transiting through Mexico and the United States to seek asylum in Canada.

For more about the work of PBI-Mexico, please see their website.

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