E/CN.4/2003/85/Add.2 page 6 carry out her visit in a transparent and open atmosphere. She would also like to thank the Minister of the Interior and the INM officials who assisted her and gave her information on the migration situation in Mexico. The United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Information Centre provided essential logistic support for the visit. She is especially grateful to the civil organizations, the Sin Fronteras (Without Borders) organization and the Homes for Migrants, and to academia for their valuable support throughout her visit and to the migrant men and women whom she met for their direct testimony. I. GENERAL IMPRESSIONS 5. The Special Rapporteur noted the obvious concern of the Mexican authorities and organizations to end the dichotomy which exists between what Mexico asks for its migrants abroad in terms of protection, and the type of protection and treatment it offers to foreign migrants in Mexico. 6. At the federal level, the Special Rapporteur felt encouraged by the approach which the Ministry of the Interior and the INM are developing with regard to migration management, including the protection of the human rights of migrants, and encourages them to continue on this path. She considers that it is necessary to strengthen the INM as the principal federal body with competence for migration matters, so as to enable it to deal with migration questions on its own, without being dependent on a multitude of police forces which intervene at the municipal, State and federal levels and have no specialized training in migration questions. 7. The Beta Groups, which form part of the INM, are primarily engaged in the tasks of providing protection and guidance for migrants and must be given the necessary resources to carry out their work in a professional and effective manner. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the establishment of these groups which, in addition to having the task of offering concrete responses to migrants with problems, represent an innovative form of protection in frontier migration management in Mexico. The Special Rapporteur heard allegations that, on some occasions, members of other police forces, with no specific training, had been transferred to the Beta Groups. In her opinion, the strengthening of this body, so as to ensure that it has its own human resources with specialized training, would guarantee the quality of its performance. 8. In her report, the Special Rapporteur describes the situation of vulnerability with which migrants are confronted, the situations in which they are subjected to abuses and the risks to which they are exposed. She noted that, given the extent of the problems confronted by illegal migrants transiting through Mexico, there is inadequate consular representation of their countries of origin (in particular, central American countries and Ecuador) to deal with them. The Mexican Government informed the Special Rapporteur that it has initiated a dialogue with various Central American Governments and the Ecuadorian Government to study the possibility of establishing Central American and Ecuadorian consulates. The Special Rapporteur takes note of the interest expressed by the Mexican Government in continuing negotiations with the above-mentioned countries with a view to the opening of consulates on its territory. She considers it extremely important that these consulates should be staffed by personnel with expertise in migration questions, particularly with regard to consular protection.