Mexico

Our teams provide mental health services to people in Piedras Negras. Mexico, February 2023.

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Every year, between 500,000 and one million people who flee violence, discrimination and poverty in their countries enter Mexico after crossing Central America.

Most people who have traversed Central America to reach Mexico, along with hundreds of thousands of Mexicans, hope to reach the United States of America.

In Mexico, these people are systematically exposed to further episodes of violence, including kidnappings, torture, and sexual violence. In recent years, the proportion of women travelling alone and with small children has increased. While most migrants come from other countries in the Americas like Venezuela, Colombia, and Haiti, many people also arrive from Africa and Asia.

We have been working with migrants and refugees in Mexico since 2012. Our teams work at different points along Mexico’s southern and northern borders, and at key locations in between, offering medical and psychological assistance. Our projects are always adapting to the ever-changing migration route. We support shelters and health structures and run mobile clinics.

In Mexico City, we have a comprehensive care centre where we provide specialised multidisciplinary care to migrants, refugees, and Mexican people who have been victims of extreme violence and torture.

MSF has repeatedly denounced the repressive policies of the U.S.A. and Mexican governments, which are based on criminalisation, persecution, detention and deportation. These policies are used to contain migratory flows to the northern border, but they oftentimes push migrants into the hands of criminal gangs who extort them.

Our activities in 2024 in Mexico

Data and information from the International Activity Report 2024.

276

Staff in 2024 (full-time equivalent)

€12.4 M

12.4M

Expenditure in 2024

1985

Year MSF first worked in the country

MSF in Mexico in 2024 In 2024, Mexico hosted significant numbers of asylum seekers and people on the move. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) provides medical care and mental health support through clinics across the country.

Country map for the IAR 2024.

The requests for asylum in Mexico have increased exponentially over the past decade, reaching 86,000 in 2024. However, asylum seekers were just a fraction of the total number of migrants travelling through Mexico, many of whom aimed to reach the United States (US). According to official statistics, between January and August 2024, there were 925,000 people on the move in the country.

In Tapachula and Coatzacoalcos, southern Mexico, we assisted new arrivals, as well as people stranded due to difficulties in obtaining transit permits. During the year, we adapted to the changing migration routes, and responded temporarily in the towns of Suchiate and Juchitán.

Due to an increase in migrant caravans, particularly following the US election, we expanded our assistance through mobile clinics in late 2024.

In Mexico City, MSF teams provided medical care, mental health support, and physiotherapy to survivors of extreme violence, both Mexican citizens and migrants, in a dedicated clinic. In addition, we scaled up our mobile clinic activities in informal camps.

At the northern border, after seven years of activities, we closed our project at Piedras Negras in September. We continued to work in Reynosa and Matamoros, offering basic healthcare and mental health support to migrants living in dedicated shelters while waiting to cross the border to apply for asylum in the US.

Our teams report that the migrants they treat – especially women and children, who are arriving in increasing numbers – often have limited access to basic services, and spend long periods in unsanitary, hostile environments. These conditions worsen medical issues such as respiratory infections, skin diseases, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other mental health problems linked to exposure to extreme violence.