CHIAPAS

1. Chiapas: CHIAPAS A Policy of Respect for and Assistance to Migrants 2006-2009

2. Policy on Assistance to Migrants in Chiapas Objective To promote public policy-making between Chiapas and other national and international actors. • Approach: • Education • Health • Fair Treatment – Human Rights • Public Security • Procuration of Justice • Protection, Promotion, and Respect for Human Rights • Labor Security and Temporary Employment • The Right to Identity

3. Guidelines for the Assistance to Migrants • Migration and Security • Migration and Labor • Migration and Health • Migration and Human Rights • Migration and Protection

4. Migration and Labor • The National Institute of Migration (Instituto Nacional de Migración – INM) to issue a Border Worker Migration Form for Guatemalans and Belizeans to work in any productive sector within the States of Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche, and Quintana Roo. • Together with IOM, the three government levels, consulates, and labor authorities we have developed mechanisms to provide order, certainty, security, and access to health care and to avoid corruption affecting temporary agricultural workers. • Results from the establishment of the Intersecretarial Commission for Matters relating to Agricultural Workers.

5. Migration and Labor • Mobile legal assistance and labor justice units on coffee plantations • An assessment of key plantations in Soconusco was carried out to identify the status regarding infrastructure (shelters), education, health, and security • Documents have been issued for 1,366 migrant agricultural workers who are working on coffee plantations and who entered the State of Chiapas without migration documents • A transit home in Ciudad Cuauhtémoc • PRONIM Strategy • Together with IOM, hosting the International Forum on Migration, Remittances, and Development Perspectives

6. Migration and Protection • Assistance to accompanied and unaccompanied migrant children …. • In 2009, the National Institute of Migration identified 4,364 migrant children and teenagers from Central America between the ages of 12-17 years and children under 11 years of age, 3,673 of whom were unaccompanied. • We have established a shelter providing comprehensive assistance to unaccompanied or separated migrant girls and boys who have been detained by Immigration and whose repatriation process lasts more than 24 hours.

7. Migration and Protection • Direct government assistance through the Directorate for the Assistance to Migrants and Shelters of the DIF (Sistema Nacional para el Desarrollo Integral de la Familia). • Interaction with shelters run by NGOs such as the Belen Shelter, managed by Father Padre Flor Maria Rigoni. • A program for financial assistance to organizations assisting migrants in Chiapas. • A migration regularization program. • Information modules to inform and orient migrants, located in town squares.

8. Migration and Human Rights • Relating to trafficking in persons: We have provided accommodation, food, and protection to victims throughout their migration regularization and social integration processes. • A local anti-trafficking network • An Intersecretarial Committee to combat trafficking in persons. • A center for the assistance of victims of trafficking. • The Civil Code has been reformed to guarantee the issuance of birth certificates for all children of migrants born in Chiapas. • Accompaniment of the process of registering 249 children of migrants living in Puerto Chiapas and the Tapachula municipal dump yard.

9. Migration and Human Rights • A census of migrant populations working at the municipal dump yard was carried out. The census helped us know the status of each migrant and identify individual cases and refer them to relevant institutions. In addition, we worked together with the INM, the Consulates of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, and the National Human Rights Commission. • Priority issues as a result of the census: Migration Regularization and Register. • The national Migration Fair was held, with participation of organizations involved in promoting the human rights of migrants.

10. Migration and Human Rights • Based on the International Human Rights Day and on the occurrences caused by the hurricane in El Salvador, SDFS provided food and clothes to migrant populations working at the municipal dump yard in Puerto Chiapas. In addition, food was delivered to the Consul of El Salvador to be sent to Salvadoran victims of the hurricane. • Resources have been provided to nonprofit civil society organizations involved in assisting migrant populations. • Training workshops on Human Rights have been held for municipal and state police officers in some areas of the State of Chiapas. As a result, 601 police officers have been trained.

11. Migration and Health • The Health Secretariats provides the following assistance relating to health and immunizations campaigns: • Agricultural production units • Stations and shelters for migrants • Health and immunization campaigns • Mental health programs • Health Passports • Based on the International Migrants Day a health fair was held in Casa Roja.

12. Migration and Security • We have established an office specializing on crimes against migrants, located in Tapachula, Chiapas, which interacts with Offices of the Attorney General and Consuls of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. • Regarding matters of public security, ongoing actions are being implemented, with 70 officers of the Secretariat of Security posted in the surrounding areas. • Cooperation with CARECEN: software and a data base of missing persons in Central America. 

13. Migration and Security • Together with the University of Cantabria, training and awareness-raising workshops for police officers from all border and transit municipalities have been held. • A municipal network has been established which will eventually lead to the establishment of a migration observatory by INSYDE.

14. Migration and Security • Efforts are being made to find solutions to the problem of lack of security prevailing at different points of transit. Shelter and assistance is being provided to migrants in the municipalities of Tapachula and Huixtla. Relevant units participate in ongoing meetings led by SDFS. To date, the following actions have been implemented: • Training workshops for municipal and state police officers. • Visits to shelters to identify relevant problems. • Patrolling points of transit, shelter and assistance to migrants according to established schedules.

15. Inter-institutional Assistance Mechanisms at the Southern Border • Bilateral meetings between Mexico and Guatemala • • Intersecretarial Commission for matters relating to agricultural workers • Inter-Institutional Committee for matters relating to trafficking in persons • Inter-Institutional Committee for assistance in cases of human rights violations • Monthly meetings, in coordination with 16 municipalities from the border region, with directorates of the Centers for the Comprehensive Development of Families (DIF) • A local network for assistance in cases of human rights violations • Inter-Institutional Committee for migrant boys, girls, and adolescents • International cooperation agreements for social, economic, and cultural development, such as the agreement signed with El Salvador

16. Comprehensive Assistance Coordinated by the Secretariat for Development of the Southern Border

17. Government of Chiapas: • A Vision of Development linked to Migration • We recognize that migration is a part of human development. • In Chiapas, we support the process of dignification of our neighbors and we recognize the importance of migrants as agents of progress and development in urban and rural areas of the State of Chiapas.