Casa Monarca. Humanitarian Aid for Migrants

We are an organization, located in Monterrey, Mexico, that responds to migrants' most urgent needs, promotes their human rights and supports them through humanitarian aid, civic education and academic research.

Currently, we distribute some 850 meals each month and provide legal advice to about 30 migrants. A shelter with the capacity to house 110 people will soon be built with the support of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and some private donors. Regarding legal advice, Casa Monarca¹. Humanitarian Aid for Migrants has a legal team that advises migrants and helps with administrative procedures and lawsuits in cooperation with the National Migration Institute.

The Casa Monarca. Humanitarian Aid for Migrants team gives introductory courses on human rights and on the topic of migration in various institutions, seeking to raise awareness of migration at the local level. We offer a local response to a global phenomenon.

Our Mission

We are an organization that welcomes, protects, promotes and integrates migrants and defends their human rights.

Our Vision

We aim to provide migrants with the sustainable infrastructure they need; to connect with other organizations to address the protection and defense of migrants' human rights; and to be a leader in promoting the dignity and empowerment of migrants.

At Casa Monarca Humanitarian Aid for Migrants, we are committed to deal with the humanitarian crisis in the region in a way that does not focus on the number of people to be detained or sent to detention centers. Rather, we focus on the causes of forced migration, the manner in which migration takes place, the problems migrants face on their journeys, the perception of migrants as merchandise and the inability of the State to act. Migrants often are treated like merchandise, sold and exchanged, smuggled, extorted, exploited and recruited for the sale of organs. As far as the State is concerned, we note a lack of legal control, of disinterested action, and, mostly, of political will, all of which generates brutal detention, abuse and extortion, corruption, injustice and a high level of impunity. This is a social tragedy with human consequences.

The response must be to recognize, welcome, protect, promote and integrate migrants and refugees as well as returnees and displaced internal migrants. At our local shelter, we hear about, and report, human rights violations that occurred en route. We do so through legal mechanisms to protect rights and dignity. We examine the effects of human underdevelopment; how migrants, refugees, internally displaced migrants and returnees attempt to integrate into society; and how they contribute to cultural and social knowledge. As a civil society organization, we are actively engaged, and call upon local governments, to open new humanitarian channels through regular and safe routes for migrants, to guarantee rights and encourage human development that enriches local communities.

The journeys of migrants and asylum seekers through hostile territory, at the northeastern Mexican border and the southern U.S. border, highlight how important it is not to marginalize migrants and asylum seekers in psychological, ideological, cultural or other ways. Migrants and asylum seekers are invisible when their human rights are being denied but visible when they are being hurt. They migrate to escape dire poverty; along the way, many are targeted by the authorities and organized crime as financial resources. They also are accepted when they are able to contribute, but rejected if they ask for public services or assistance.

These migrants are needed for some low-status jobs but are rejected for not being qualified. People pity them due to the conditions of their journey, but few local states are ready to shelter them. Some states, however, seek to keep them because refugees constitute the smallest migration groups and states can "choose" those to whom they will grant refugee status.

We believe in the principles of migration governance and what these have achieved. Every day, we urge adherence to international standards and fulfillment of migrant and refugee rights. At the same time, migration and related policies are best formulated at the local level, using evidence and human rights indicators. Through good migration and refugee governance, we rely on strong partnerships with sub-national authorities, local communities, migrants and their families, employers and trade unions.

The Metropolitan Area of Monterrey is a popular option for migrants on their journey to or return from the United States because of the area's geographical location, job offers, economic capacity and social services. Civil society organizations are fundamental actors in responding to migrants' needs where local governments cannot or do not want to assume this task. Among them is Casa Monarca Humanitarian Aid for Migrants, which is deeply committed to its mission to welcome, protect, promote and integrate migrants, and defend their human rights.

The qualitative and descriptive research in which we engage, helps us to better understand the characteristics of Central American migrants, Mexican returnees, migrants in transit and internally displaced people. It also provides information about their destinations, transit, and needs for protection at the local level. Our research also facilitates a diagnostic perspective on the diverse needs among those seeking help at Casa Monarca.

We emphasize the inequality of access to social rights for those forced to migrate. This, in turn, increases the vulnerability, exploitation and exclusion they experience throughout their journeys from their country of origin as well as at their destinations. For these reasons, it is important to provide a local response to the global phenomenon of migration as it manifests itself in the Metropolitan Area of Monterrey.