New MSF Report Denounces 'Dehumanising' Migration Policies in Americas

On Tuesday 12 August 2025, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF; Doctors Without Borders), an international humanitarian organisation with a branch in Luxembourg, released a new report denouncing "dehumanising" migration policies in the Americas.

The report, titled "Unwelcome: The Devastating Human Impact of Migration Policy Changes in the United States, Mexico and Central America", is based on analysis of MSF medical data and interviews with patients of various nationalities at different stages of migration, as well as with MSF staff working along the migratory route in Panama, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico.

It argues that the current US administration, in its first six months in office, has "implemented the most restrictive and dehumanising migration policy seen in years, abandoning hundreds of thousands of people hoping to seek asylum in the US and leaving them stranded in danger in Mexico and Central America".

The report highlights "how the US government's policies and rhetoric criminalising migration have resonated throughout Latin America". MSF has therefore called on "all governments across the Americas to renounce deterrence and abandonment tactics and instead implement humane policies that ensure access to asylum, medical care and protection along the Latin American migration corridor".

"These policies, combined with the drastic reduction of aid and the humanitarian footprint along the migration route, have had a devastating impact on the well-being of people trying to seek safety," said Franking Frías, MSF Deputy Director of Operations in Mexico and Central America.

Since late January 2025, the US government has closed the main avenues to request asylum and protection, heightened security at the border with Mexico and deported people in "unconscionable conditions", according to MSF.

"We feel abandoned and unprotected," said a Honduran woman stranded in Reynosa, northern Mexico. "We never wanted to enter the United States illegally. We ask for benevolence for cases like mine: mothers who have been waiting for a long time with children, who want to give them a better life. We have already gone through a process; we already had a right. We have been victims of scams, the cartels, we have been deceived, we are traumatised."

According to MSF, the woman had secured an appointment through CBP One for three days after the application was shut down and all appointments were cancelled. In addition, several countries along the Latin American migration corridor have tightened deterrence measures. MSF reported that law enforcement and immigration authorities in the region have "forcefully returned migrants, restricted people’s movements and dismantled urban camps where people with nowhere else to go were sheltering"; they have closed migration reception stations, dissolved gatherings in public spaces, carried out raids, "arbitrarily detained" people, increased patrols and "complicated and reduced access" to bureaucratic procedures, including asylum processes.

"We were held captive for 60 days," said a Venezuelan man stranded in Ciudad Juárez, northern Mexico. "[Criminals] hit me on the head, pulled a tooth and shoved a gun in my mouth to take pictures and call one of my sons in the United States. My son and son-in-law paid the ransom and we were released. The plan was to go to the United States. The rest of my family is there waiting for us. But with this US government, we don't know what to do."

Carmen López, MSF manager for mobile health activities, shared the story of a Venezuelan patient she assisted in Guatemala. The man and his son were deported earlier this year from the US, despite having entered through CBP One: "First, they were held in a detention centre in the United States separately for about 20 days. Later, they were deported to Mexico. During the transfer to the Mexican authorities, his backpack containing personal items and savings was stolen. They were left in Villahermosa [a town in southeastern Mexico]. They had to start their return [to Venezuela] without money. He was very frustrated because he had gone through the legal process, and it had all been a lie in the end."

MSF argued that, for many people, returning to their country is not an option, either due to a lack of financial resources or fear of the dangers they fled (e.g. political and economic crises in Venezuela or Cuba, widespread violence in Haiti, conflict in peripheral regions of Colombia or threats from criminal groups and a lack of opportunities in Ecuador and other Central American countries).

"We were given a 24-hour ultimatum to pay an amount of money we didn't have," said a Salvadoran woman in Tapachula, southern Mexico. "Migrating was neither a political choice nor a search for better economic opportunities. It was an urgent decision to save our lives."

With seeking asylum at the US southern border now "close to impossible", according to MSF, tens of thousands of people see Mexico as their only alternative. However, MSF teams have observed that asylum procedures in Mexico have become lengthier and more complex in several cities, while violence from organised crime groups and other actors remains "alarming".

"Violence is much more evident now," stated Ricardo Santiago, who coordinated MSF programmes in northern and southern Mexico. "Before - given the large number of people on the move - some would be spared, whereas today most of the people I've spoken with have been victims of violence. There is no escape."

MSF teams, particularly in Mexico, have reported rising psychological needs among patients and a high proportion of people with severe mental health issues, despite reduced medical activities since the slowing of migration flows. In recent years, many patients have had an "obvious need" for mental health support due to recurring violence and precarious living conditions along the migration route. "On top of these experiences, people now face uncertainty provoked by the drastic and numerous policy changes, which trigger despair once people realise that all they endured to reach the US was in vain," added MSF.

"The symptoms are increasingly intense," said Lucía Samayoa, MSF project coordinator in Tapachula. "They're living under a lot of pressure and stress. Many people require pharmacological treatment, with a more structured, longer therapeutic process."

Moreover, stranded migrants and asylum seekers have dispersed, becoming less visible - due to a reported fear of prosecution, detention and deportation in a "stigmatising" environment where they are repeatedly labelled as criminals, according to MSF.

"Today, migrants are less accessible and the humanitarian system is unprepared to effectively address their vulnerabilities and complex needs," added Franking Frías. "Behind every policy is its impact on real people: survivors of torture, families escaping danger and children navigating border crossings alone. Their health, safety and dignity are legal and moral obligations. All governments in the region must act now to protect, not punish, people in search of safety and create safe immigration pathways."

Between January 2024 and May 2025, MSF teams provided more than 90,000 primary healthcare consultations and 11,850 sexual and reproductive healthcare consultations, treated nearly 3,000 survivors of sexual violence and conducted almost 17,000 individual mental health consultations - most linked to violence - with people on the move in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama.

In its report, MSF makes the following recommendations for governments in the region:

• shift away from deterrence-based policies and externalisation strategies;
• uphold the right to seek asylum and prohibit refoulement;
• end arbitrary practices that put people at further risk;
• guarantee access to healthcare and essential services without discrimination;
• strengthen protection systems and sustain humanitarian response capacity;
• combat stigmatisation, dehumanisation and the militarisation of migration.

The full report can be downloaded here.