Kimberlyn Paola* fled from Honduras in the midst of the pandemic after being threatened for refusing to sell drugs. Her country could not protect her and upon fleeing she was met with rejection, discrimination, and the risk of infection with COVID-19.

She says that in Guatemala police officers took away her bag that contained her baby’s documentation. In Mexico, she was locked up in a detention center where there were around 100 women unable to keep a distance between themselves. Upon entering they did not test her. Finally, the authorities told her that she would remain locked up for 90 days with her baby. She did not have any choice but to return to Honduras where she has now received new threats.

There are thousands of people like her from countries like El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua who have no other alternative than to leave their countries. They then find that the governments of Mexico and Central America do not always ensure protection measures against coronavirus for them and on occasion expose them to a greater risk of infection.

Governments have a duty to keep these people safe from COVID-19 as they cannot “stay at home”. Failing to do so puts everyone at risk.

Sign to demand that authorities in Mexico and Central America protect migrants during the pandemic.

* This petition is part of the work of  “Inclusive Mobility in the Pandemic Alliance”, an initiative led by Amnesty International, the Independent Monitoring Group of El Salvador, and the Institute for Women in Migration, in which more than 30 civil society organizations in Mexico and Central America participate.