Invisible Victims: Migrants Crossing Mexico into The United States

May 16, 2012 - 13:29 -- Tanya O'Carroll
Revision #18Recommend a SolutionFork
San Francisco

Every year, tens of thousands of women, men and children are ill-treated, abducted or raped as they travel through Mexico without legal permission as irregular migrants. The vast majority are headed for the US border in the hope of new life far from the crippling poverty they are fleeing. Their journey is one of the most dangerous in the world. Arbitrary detention and extortion by public officials are common. Many simply disappear without trace, kidnapped and killed, or robbed, assaulted and thrown off speeding trains. For those who survive the extreme insecurity and dangers of the journey through Mexico, reaching the US border brings its own hazards. Increased US immigration enforcement in certain border areas has pushed undocumented immigrants to use particularly dangerous routes through the US desert; hundreds of people die each year as a result.

The devastating abuses that take place against migrants is a cross border issue, involving both the United States and Mexican societies. But currently, their deaths, like their lives, remain largely hidden from view. For the families back home, there is little hope of ever finding out what happened.

How could technology, applications and digital services make the invisible visible with regard to abuses committed against migrants, and be used to support both migrants and their networks in a safe way, helping mitigate the risks and reduce the number of people who die each year?

1. Aggregate and visualize data for advocacy: How can we make invisible crimes visible without putting migrants at risk?

Data collection is vital in order to have a full and comprehensive analysis of the factors that contribute to deaths and abuses across Mexico and along the US border. The lack of such data is a serious barrier to determining the steps that need to be taken to mitigate the prevalence of migrant deaths along the border.
 
The numbers of people missing, killed, injured and abused is unknown but increasing – how can technology help those who already provide shelter/support to migrants better document and track the stories of those who are travelling to provide more accurate data on the scale of migrant abuses/deaths? How could technology applications (video, audio) be used to generate more evidence and testimony that can then be used to expose abuses and pressure the governments involved to prosecute crimes committed against migrants?
 
For example:
  • Could we create a simple, accessible digital system to provide a means for the networks of civil society organizations and shelters on the ground who could/can/are collecting and capturing data to aggregate and share this information?
  • Could we facilitate a form of ‘check in’, which migrants can do from specific safe points on their journey?
  • How could we collect this information in a manner that is safe and secure and does not put migrants at further risk?
  • How could we capture more migrant stories/voices anonymously at these safe points, for use as testimony and to use for informing others who consider making the journey of the risks involved?
  • How could we create anonymous visualizations based on these routes and stories for use in advocacy?
 
Possible type of data a system could record:
 
  • Numbers and routes
  • Abuses by smugglers
  • Sexual violence
  • Police and state abuse
  • Being thrown back over the border (when not allowed even though they’re at risk)
  • Documenting deaths
  • Water points and shelters
 
2. Relative/family support and missing persons
 
Families experience what psychologists term ‘Ambiguous Loss’, which means that the status of a loved one is in question – unresolved. The grief process cannot start because the person is neither dead nor alive. Families often report debilitating fear and an inability to focus on daily tasks. At any point in their ‘normal’ day, their loved one could be suffering somewhere without help. The search often becomes all-consuming. And without an organized system for searching, families are left to do it alone.
 
Relatives and families are a key audience and are also more likely to have access to the web. How can we use existing social networks to connect up families with lost members on migrant crossings?  How could we create a high security database that loved ones of migrants could access in order to be sure their family member is safe, or to track back to where they were last seen?
 
  • Could we develop a lo-fi, social web based missing and unidentified person system to provide more reliable information to families whose loved ones disappear?
  • Could we create a platform that supports knowledge transfer, allowing for posting missing members, sightings, news and locations?
 
3. Information provision and distribution for migrants
 
Many people know they are risking their lives; they cross because of desperation and more information on risks would be unlikely to make a difference. On the other hand, there may be some people crossing for the first time and for whom it may be hard to conceive of the reality of the journey. 
Many others are deliberately misled by smugglers/traffickers who give false information about the risks i.e. that it is just a day’s walk, etc. 
 
Could we create a platform that communicates risks to migrants through information and visibility, better planning information - where are the shelters, telephone numbers, water and food points? Could we make it accessible for them to find out information on their rights in specific states and regions e.g access to justice, support networks etc.
 
Possible areas:
  • Increase awareness of risks - how to get more accurate information available, in a secure and anonymous way
  • Increase awareness of rights - what are local laws, places to report abuse and how, knowing what they should be able to claim/demand of local authorities
  • Increase awareness of help they can get along the way - where are safe routes, houses, telephone numbers, alert systems, rescue and distress. Using maps, satellites, crowd-sourcing etc, alternative emergency service number?
Recommended Solutions: 
NGO Collaboration Space
AmnestySOS
User Stories: 

A short & powerful photoessay capturing the stories of just a few migrants crossing Mexico:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMzQlJzHX4M&feature=player_embedded

 

Images & Stories from Amnesty International - Journeys of hope and fear: Migrants on the move in Mexico

 

http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR41/066/2010/en

 

Stories from the US side of the border: http://www.amnestyusa.org/research/reports/usa-in-hostile-terrain-human-rights-violations-in-immigration-enforcement-in-the-us-southwest?page=show

Constraints: 
  • Lack of access: Most migrants crossing Mexico will have almost no belongings; any phone in their possession will very likely be stolen early on in their journey. A major creative challenge in coming up with solutions to this problem will be seeking to find the ways that technology can support these individuals when they will not have access to technology on their person.

 

  • Security & protection: While migrants face devastating human rights because of their vulnerability in the 'invisible' route across Mexico, we must seek to make these abuses visible whilst still guaranteeing protection of identity in order not to put people at further risk. Any data that is captured must be highly secure and where possible we should seeks systems that capture data anonymously whilst still allowing a family member or friend to search and find out where their loved one is on route (could we use a code/pin shared between a migrants contacts for example?)
Next Steps and Sustainability: 

We have contacts with migrants’ rights networks in Mexico and the US, several of whom will hopefully be at the RHoK event, and at the very least will have given us advice on our project specification. We will demo our project to them once we have a working prototype. We will take their feedback and iterate both externally and with internal stakeholders at Amnesty International until we have a project that is ready to be rolled out to the field. We would like ongoing support from the RHoK community and will be inviting collaborators to attend (either in person or virtually) at the global AI Digital Skills Share in London on the 5th July 2012.

Qualitative Impact: 
Thousands of people would be directly supported by tools that facilitate information sharing and data and documentation collection on human rights abuses against migrants along this journey. Any prototype we create can then be presented to networks of on-the-ground organizations, as well as rights holders themselves, to invite their participation and expertise in a collaborative process of further refinement and development. When and if a product is ready for market it will be because we have tested, trained and piloted widely with these networks and will likely continue in beta before scaling up to support other regions and contexts where this tool could play a role globally.
Problem Definition Category: 
Health
Transparency
Transportation
Event: 
San Francisco, CA, U.S.A.
Event Group: 
RHoK Global June 2012

UI/UX design support provided by Azavea