URGENT ACTION

POLICE THREATEN STAFF AT MIGRANTS' SHELTER

Migrant Rights Defenders have been insulted and intimidated by federal police officers at Tijuana Migrants’ Shelter, in the state of Baja California, northern Mexico.

On 26 July, approximately thirty heavily armed federal police officers arrived at the Tijuana Migrants’ Shelter asking to enter the premises. They said that they were searching for someone who had committed a murder and believed he could be staying at the shelter.

According to staff at the shelter, when the director of the shelter Padre Luiz Kendzierski said that they could not enter the shelter without a search warrant, the police officers began to insult him. They shouted that he was a paedophile on several occasions and accused him of profiting from the migrants. They also threatened and insulted Gabriela Morales, a lawyer supporting migrants at the shelter, who was standing outside of the shelter at the time. They reportedly told her “people who defend human rights are protecting criminals” (“las personas que defienden derechos humanos protegen a los criminales”).

As a result of the federal police officers’ insults and intimidating behaviour, the shelter staff contacted the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH). According to staff at the shelter, once a member of staff from the CNDH arrived at the shelter, the police officers' behaviour improved, so the shelter staff allowed one police officer to enter the shelter unarmed. There was no sign of the man they were looking for at the shelter and the police officers left the shelter soon after.

Please write immediately in Spanish or your own language:

• Calling on the authorities to publically recognise the important and legitimate work of human rights defenders providing humanitarian aid in migrants’ shelters across Mexico and to make a public apology to members of staff working at the Tijuana Migrants’ Shelter for the insults they suffered on 26 July;

• Calling on the authorities to implement an effective protection programme for all human rights defenders at risk in consultation with civil society as stipulated in the presidential agreement signed on 6 July 2011;

• Reminding the authorities that the UN Declaration on the Rights and Responsibilities of Individuals, Groups and Institutions to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms recognizes the legitimacy of the activities of human rights defenders and their right to carry out their activities without any restrictions or fear of reprisals.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 9 SEPTEMBER 2011 TO: