ILO and SUCOMM open a second Migrant Workers' Resource Center in Mexico

Cancun, Quintana Roo. August 8, 2023. This morning in Cancun, Quintana Roo, the second MWRC in Latin America was formally opened, thus taking the first steps towards the creation of a Mesoamerican corridor of Centers that provide services and reliable and transparent information to migrant, displaced, refugee and returnee workers, increasing their opportunities to access decent work.

The centres in Tijuana and Cancun are managed by staff of the trade union Sindicatos Unidos con México Moderno (SUCOMM) and are spaces where migrant workers, their families and other members of the community can access information about their labour rights.

The first Center is located in Tijuana, Baja California. It was opened in June 2022 and has since provided assistance to 694 migrants, refugees, asylum seekers and returnees. Almost 50% of those who have received services by the MWRC in Tijuana had been denied access to employment before coming to the Center.

The centres are based on the ILO´s MWRC model that has been successfully implemented in other countries, especially in the Asian region.

In the opening event of the second Center participated Flor Ruiz Cosío, Secretary of Labour and Social Welfare of the State of Quintana Roo; Miriam del Sol Merino, Founder of the MWRC in Tijuana and member of SUCOMM's National Executive Center; Alicia Ramírez, Director of the MWRC Cancún; and Noortje Denkers, ILO Labour Migration and Mobility Specialist for Central America, Mexico, Haiti, Panama and the Dominican Republic.

“The MWRC are a response to complex challenges in terms of the application of fair recruitment in Mexico and Central America. These two centers, which are unique in Latin America and the Caribbean, provide specific services for migrant workers who need access to decent work opportunities and information about their rights. So far, several trade unions in Central American countries have expressed interest in replicating this model so we see this as the beginning of a Mesoamerican corridor of Migrant Workers Resource Centres.

explained Noortje Denkers, ILO Labour Migration and Mobility Specialist.

Finally, Alicia Ramirez, director of the Center in Cancun, recalled that "displaced persons, migrants, refugees and asylum seekers drive the economic growth of the place where they go and hence the importance of facilitating their integration into formal employment and to achieve this, we will work in coordination with all sectors such as authorities, unions and employers".

Click here to check the Systematization of the experience of the RCMW, recommendations to improve their services and to replicate the model in Mexico and Central American countries.