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 Editorials | At Issue | August 2005 
Immigrants Duped by False Promises
 Liliana Alcántara - El Universal
As a child in sub-Saharan Africa, Emily was orphaned when her mother died of AIDS. Her grandparents took charge of raising her and helped her to finish her primary and secondary education.
But when she turned 18 and announced that she wanted to continue her studies at the university level, she found that her grandparents had other plans for her: They had arranged for her to marry a 50 year-old man who already had two wives.
Emily started to look for a way out of the predicament, and, luckily as it seemed at the time, met a Mexican woman who promised to help her continue her studies in Mexico.
When she arrived in Mexico City, however, she found a much different situation than she had been promised. She was taken to an apartment where, on her very first night in the country, she was forced to pose for nude photographs. Later on, she was made to drink large amounts of beer and dance with a man "in order to pay for her trip."
According to the testimony she would later give to Sin Fronteras, a migrant and refugee rights group with offices in Mexico City, she was held in the apartment incommunicado for the next 10 months, often without food, and forced to work as a prostitute.
Eventually, Emily was able to escape from the apartment. But as of yet, has not filed formal charges against her captors. "The psychological damage has been so intense that she hasn't been able to fully talk about the ordeal," says a Sin Fronteras representative.
Laws Lacking
Emily's case is just one of the many instances of exploitation and abuse that Sin Fronteras has encountered in its efforts to combat the mistreatment of immigrants and refugees here in Mexico.
At a federal level, there is currently no law that specifically prohibits abuse of immigrants, explains Karina Arias, a Sin Fronteras representative. Since there is no law, there are no official statistics to facilitate a clear understanding of the depth of the problem.
Frequently complaints are categorized by law enforcement officials under laws related to human trafficking, which applies to cases of collaborating to assist in border crossings. However, this legal framework does not include a host of other types of abuse such as indentured servitude, forced labor, sexual slavery, etc.
Organized crime is often linked to immigrant abuse, which makes legislation even more urgent, says Arias. An initiative to specifically address immigrant abuse was introduced to the Senate last December, but it has yet to be approved.
Guanajuato Nightmare
Ziao, a widow, and Peng, a divorcee, were both struggling to make ends meet in their homeland of China. One day they came across an offer from a Mexican clothing factory that offered a good salary, food and lodging, eight-hour work days and paid overtime.
The two women jumped at the offer and soon found themselves in the state of Guanajuato with legal work visas. But as soon as they began work, their employer made them turn over all of their documents.
And that was just the beginning of their troubles. As it turned out, the only lodging they were offered by their employer was inside the factory itself. And they were forced to work 16-hour days, seven days a week. Any sign of "disobedience" meant a reduction in their already low pay.
Ziao and Peng worked under these conditions for two years until they used a doctor's visit as an excuse to make their escape from the factory. Furious, their employer reported them to immigration officials, who detained the women on the grounds that they had no papers to show their legal status here.
Fortunately, Sin Fronteras was able to intervene on their behalf and negotiate their release. The organization filed a legal complaint against the factory owners, but representatives say that the case has gone nowhere so far because the crime has not been codified under federal law. They also filed a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission, but up to this point, Sin Fronteras says that the factory remains in operation and the owners have faced no discipline. |
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