By IPS Correspondents
MEXICO CITY, May 17 1999 (IPS)

Mexico deports annually some 100,000 undocumented migrants from South and Central America who attempt to use Mexico as a springboard into the United States, a venture in which many lose all of their savings – and even their lives.

But according to estimates, the deported migrants are equivalent to just 25 percent of those who reach the U.S. border.

The number of detentions and deportations has remained fairly steady since 1995, despite stepped up border controls and increased staff, as well as stiffened sanctions against the “coyotes” or “polleros” who smuggle undocumented migrants.

Figures released by the National Institute of Migration Friday indicate that in 1998 Mexico apprehended and deported 108,000 undocumented immigrants, 90 percent of whom were from the Central American countries of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.

In 1996, the government of President Ernesto Zedillo sponsored legal reforms to toughen sentencing for smugglers, who now face up to eight years in prison. It also beefed up controls along the border, while ordering respect for the rights of detainees.

But the attraction of employment in the United States, even a low-paying job without labour rights, is more powerful than any deterrent or controls.

Mexico remains the top choice of those wishing to make it into the United States, even though the trip can entail several days stuffed into small spaces in cargo trucks, without food and with little oxygen, or treks over inhospitable and dangerous terrain, according to human rights groups.

Local newspapers published x-ray photos this week showing people huddled in tiny spaces between boxes of bananas. X-rays began to be used this year to detect illegal cargo along Mexico’s southern border.

The local human rights group ‘Sin Fronteras’ reported that in the chain of abuses and risks en route to the United States, Mexico is a particularly difficult link, with migrants facing corrupt officials, extortion from criminal gangs, illness and hunger, not to mention the ever-present risk of deportation.

Mexican newspapers regularly report the detention of undocumented migrants found in sealed crates, fuel tanks or houses or hotels where they had been hiding out for days. Some are not so lucky. The bodies of migrants, victims of suffocation, illness and hunger, are frequently found. Unidentified corpses end up in common graves.

A report by the governmental National Human Right Commission said their status as “undocumented” made migrants vulnerable to sexual abuse, extortion, theft, torture and mistreatment by migration authorities and police.

The difficulties faced in Mexico by migrants from South and Central America, as well as from Asia, are even greater than those faced by Mexicans seeking to enter the United States without documents, according to the Commission.

While the Mexican government vigorously complains about the treatment undocumented migrants receive in the United States, it is unenthusiastic when it comes to the rights of those who illegally cross through Mexico, said Rodolfo Casillas with ‘Sin Fronteras’, which works with migrants.

The United States has built walls along parts of the 3,200-km border shared with Mexico and installed sophisticated controls, including infrared cameras to detect movement at night, and continuous air and land patrols.

But the controls are much more lax along the 1,221-km border separating Mexico from Guatemala and Belize, and crossing into Mexico can take as little as two minutes at some spots.

A full 67 percent of illegal immigrants in southern Mexico interviewed by the National Human Rights Commission in 1994 said they had been threatened, mistreated and beaten by officials.

Smugglers charge 1,000 to 5,000 dollars – although payments as high as 10,000 dollars have been reported – for the trip from South or Central America to the United States, which can take as long as three months.

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