Weekly Report - 9 December 2003

Mexico's role as the outer perimeter of Nafta is coming under growing pressure as ever-bigger numbers of Central Americans seek to reach the US through its territory. In the first 10 months of this year the Mexican government has repatriated 151,697 Central Americans who had been seeking to migrate illegally to the US. This represents an increase of 37% on the same period of last year — and only reflects that portion of the flow that was checked.