A/HRC/11/7/Add.2 page 15 48. Migrant child labour is a pervasive phenomenon according to information received by the Special Rapporteur. But government efforts, especially at the state level, seem not to be commensurate with the high rates of its occurrence and the corrupt practices that permit its continuance. The Special Rapporteur welcomes recent efforts by the state of Chiapas, for example, to acknowledge the phenomenon and to combat it, but suggests that these efforts are inadequate. Not only a shift in consciousness about the reality and severity of the violations, but a more robust targeting of employers and recruiters, are in order. The first step is further investigation regarding the extent that migrant child labour is being used. D. Migrant women 49. Migrant women are particularly vulnerable in Mexico. They form the majority of cases of harassment or abuse in detention, clandestine domestic workers (sometimes “servants”), prostitutes, sexual abuse and physical and sexual assault in smuggling operations. They are also the majority of victims of trafficking (the total estimated at 16,000 to 22,000 victims annually, including children) and there are unusually high rates of homicides of women, especially in such border towns as Ciudad Juárez. Those women migrants who enter Mexico regularly or find decent work are often subject to a wage differential based on their sex, reported to be as much as 40 per cent lower than men of the same skill level. 50. According to INM, women migrants detained and deported from Mexico represent approximately 20 per cent of annual flows. While the majority of these women are from Central America (Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador), some 5 per cent are from other Latin America countries and various parts of the world. The average stay in Mexico for women from Central America seems to be between two and seven days, while women from outside of Central America stay longer, generally from two weeks to three months or more, depending on their nationality, access to consular protection, and whether or not they had filed a legal claim. 51. According to reports from civil society organizations, there are recurrent incidents of women being treated with violence or aggressively by INM personnel when being transferred to detention centres and by staff upon arrival and during the duration of their stay. Some refer to aggressive and discriminatory comments, and others report physical mistreatment. There are few formal complaints, however, both because of fear of reprisal, or because there seems to be little knowledge about how to lodge a formal complaint. 52. Medical assistance to migrants, especially female-specific, seems to be lacking in some circumstances. Due to the stress that detention causes for women migrants, many become sick upon arrival at the detention centre and some seek to attend to injuries or illnesses incurred before or during the journey. Care and treatment related to sexual violence needs to be further developed and offered more pervasively. IOM has a programme in Tapachula to fill this gap and reports that there is a stigma attached to reporting incidences of sexual abuse. Although many women migrants flee abuse of such a kind or experience it along the way, few programmes for counselling or, more specifically, for victims of trafficking, exist. 53. There are also a small number of women asylum-seekers. According to INM figures from 2007, a total of 40 women applied for asylum in Tapachula, among whom 23 were main applicants. Four of these women were recognized as refugees; all four were Iraqi.

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