Migrants are Kidnapped by the Thousands-Blog Number 6

Colleen Mills

6:00 AM

23 February 2011

In Mexico City, at least 11,300 migrants were kidnapped as a result of gang cartels during only six months of 2010. The majority of them were Central Americans, according to Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission.

The drug cartels are kidnapping migrants for the extortion of money from their families, or to use them as workers for their gang. The cartels typically demanded anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000 from the families, many of them living in America, to gain their loved ones back.

It comes as a huge surprise to find out that many migrants are captured as a result of infiltrators that are also migrants of the same areas. They find families that are able to pay the ransom and often they lead groups of fellow migrants to points where they can be kidnapped.

The Mexican government is now taking firm steps in reversing and fixing the problem.

This is a problem for thousands of migrants that span from Mexico to the United States and probably even further. These poor people are merely trying to find their way in life, when all of the sudden their family’s lives are in jeopardy, they end up as “slaves” to their own people, and they themselves could be at risk of losing their own lives.

Without a doubt, these migrants and families do not deserve the hardships they are facing. No one deserves to be forced into cartels. No one deserves to have their families threatened because someone of their own social construction practically handed them over. No one deserves that betrayal and most importantly, no one deserves that abrupt and terrible way life.

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