We Are Not Refugees by Agus Morales & Charlotte Whittle

Author:Agus Morales & Charlotte Whittle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Published: 2019-03-04T16:00:00+00:00

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VIOLENCE IS THE DRIVING FORCE behind exoduses. It is the root, the reason, the trigger. In many parts of the world, the violence continues after departure, on the journey, but few countries of transit are crueler than Mexico. In 2015, 58 percent of Central American migrants treated by Doctors Without Borders suffered one or more violent incidents on the trail. And nine out of ten showed signs of anxiety or depression as a result of the journey. Theft, extortion, assault, including sexual violence that all too often affects minors—both girls and boys. Organized criminal groups that extort money from migrants along the trail—charging them for the right to climb onto The Beast, to board a bus, to continue on their journey.

And kidnappings, many kidnappings. What is the logic behind them? Why kidnap those who have the least? Because an entrepreneur, a politician, or an actor would be sure to attract the attention of the press and the police, but nobody cares about the fate of Central Americans kidnapped in Mexico. If migrants are kidnapped en masse, and their families can be contacted to pay a modest ransom, within a few days their kidnappers can make the same amount of money. These wholesale kidnappings, with victims held in safe houses, take place on a complex chessboard where drug traffickers, cartels, migrant-smugglers, petty criminals, and security forces all play a part, and the latter not only turn a blind eye, but are sometimes also perpetrators of the violence themselves.

“Most are afraid of not seeing their families again, so they’re stressed right from the beginning,” says Miguel Gil, a psychologist. “There are groups of migrants who talk about nothing but violence. ‘Here’s what happened to me.’ ‘What happened to me was worse.’ Whether it’s true or not, the effect starts to take its toll. They hear stories from other people, then repeat them. It’s gossip. They go days without sleeping. They’re predisposed to the violence.”

The psychologist says that migrants think it’s normal for the gangs to charge them to get through, and they don’t see it as violence. That’s why he speaks of migrants who are “predisposed” to violence. They’re used to it, they expect it, and they accept it. They almost want it to happen, just to get it over with as soon as possible.

“Many are unaware of the state of their mental health,” Gil says. “They have physical symptoms, like headaches or other aches and pains, insomnia, or loss of appetite. The doctor sends them to the psychologist. Then they come in and we start talking, they tell us they’ve been attacked, and everything that’s happened to them on the trail starts to come together. And they make the connection. How long have you been getting headaches? Since leaving my country.”

Some people are assaulted as soon as they set foot in Mexico—like Nelson, the suspect kid in Ray-Bans—when they still have twenty-five hundred miles to go to get to the United States. And then there’s the feeling of guilt.

You knew what would happen to you.

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