The route from the Northern Triangle of Central America (comprising Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador) through Mexico is considered the world's second most dangerous migration route after the treacherous Mediterranean Sea crossing. En route, people who are often fleeing violence in their home countries face abduction, extortion, sexual violence, torture, and execution in their search for safety. The need to flee their countries is so dire, however, that large numbers of people continue to risk the journey.
Here, María Hernández, a field coordinator in Mexico with Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), says that more than half of the people MSF treats have experienced violence since arriving in Mexico. Our teams have provided basic medical and mental health care to tens of thousands of people along Mexico’s migration routes since 2012.