Last week the Guatemalan Human Rights Commission had the following report in its weekly round up:

"El 17.01.07 un nuevo grupo de 48 guatemaltecos llegaron al país, en el vuelo procedente de Estados Unidos, de ellos tres eran mujeres.

  "Tenía 18 años de vivir en Los Ángeles  California me duele lo que hicieron. Me separaron de mi familia", comentó Arnoldo Tun Álvares, migrante deportado.

  En 17 días de este año, las autoridades de Estados Unidos  han repatriado a 952 personas en 13 vuelos. Del grupo, 788 son hombres y 120 mujeres, 35 hombres menores de edad; en la lista se incluye a 9 mujeres menores.

  Un grupo de 89 guatemaltecos deportados, entre ellos 77 hombres y 12 mujeres fueron recibidos el 13.01.07 por funcionarios de la Dirección Genera de Migración en las instalaciones de la Fuerza Aérea Guatemalteca procedentes de Phoenix, Estados Unidos.

  Entre los que llegaron está Víctor Hugo Coronado, quien tenía 29 años de vivir en Estados Unidos y ya contaba con residencia pero fue detenido conduciendo un vehículo en estado de ebriedad, por lo que después de cuatro meses detenido fue deportado.

  Por otro lado, el presidente de la Conferencia Episcopal de Guatemala, el obispo Álvaro Ramazzini, pidió al Gobierno de México permitir el libre paso de los migrantes centroamericanos, y se quejó de las deportaciones masivas por parte de Estados Unidos.

  Ramazzini, titular de la diócesis de San Marcos, solicitó al Ejecutivo mexicano que permita el libre paso de los migrantes centroamericanos. Argumentó: "No vienen a hacer daño, no se van a quedar en México, sino que su meta es llegar a los Estados Unidos, así como miles de mexicanos que quieren pasar", dijo, en declaraciones desde el sur de México.

  También se quejó por la decisión del Gobierno de Estados Unidos de expulsar a centenares de guatemaltecos indocumentados.  Y aseguró que mientras la pobreza no desaparezca de las naciones centroamericanas y del sureste de México, no se va a frenar la migración (ilegal).

  El jueves último, un grupo de 91 indocumentados guatemaltecos -entre ellos, 58 capturados en un operativo a gran escala ejecutado por los servicios de inmigración de Estados Unidos- arribó a Guatemala procedente de Arizona (suroeste estadounidense).

  A ello se une que 12 migrantes centroamericanos fueron aparentemente golpeados y secuestrados por policías municipales de Ixtepec, Oaxaca, México, el martes 9 de enero por la noche, según denunció un grupo de indocumentados que fue detenido en esa localidad.""

The issues surrounding the many thousands of migrants out of Central America is a subject we rarely tackle on this blog- but it is the elephant in the room in many respects. I guess our lack of coverage is partially because the UK is not a common destination for many Central Americans. It's easy to feel a little removed- but it's massive importance as an issue (politically, economically, socially and culturally) can not be denied. And anyway there's not a day goes by without the UK media discussing migration- although almost always from one perspective: 'immigration'.

Perhaps because of the enormity of this issue, so often the human story behind migrations is lost. Guatemalan filmmaker Luis Argueta has recently upped another clip from his fascinating documentary on the silent voices "And There I Am" previously mentioned on this blog. It's well worth a look.

Another insightful telling of this human story is Wetback: The Undocumented Documentary directed by Arturo Peréz Torres. You can hear him interviewed six months ago here (35 minutes into it). Also interviewed is Susanne Jonas, Prof. of Latin American Studies at UC Santa Cruz, author of "The Battle for Guatemala" and "Of Centaurs and Doves: Guatemala's Peace Process". She's currently working on a new book on the migration issue.

Jonas makes the point that between 2001-3 the US authorities deported over 200,000 Guatemalans. She also makes the point that alongside the deportation of many hard-working law abiding migrants, there is also the deliberate deportation of those engaged in criminality by US authorities. This has been blamed for the increase in gang-led criminality across Central America in recent years. People picked up by the US criminal justice system are deported back to Central America which effectively just shifts the problem to countries that are ill-equipped to tackle such difficulties. Deportation is essentially an incredibly shortsighted response.

Finally I'd recommend checking out the Immigration Orange blog. Here Kyle de Beausset is a regular contributor and very recently blogged about an interesting journey that he made northwards from Guatemala. It was covered in Prensa Libre. Kyle who's half Guatemalan, half US American, blogged about his experience as a migrant heading north from Guatemala here:

"It was with all of these things in mind and much more, that I decided to try and imitate the path of a migrant from Guatemala to this good country in the North.  It was to bring myself closer to what it means to an average citizen of both the nations that have given me passports. 

There are obvious problems with someone like myself trying to take this cause on, and my fellow Harvard students were quick to bluntly say so.  So with my greatest supporters and my greatest critics we started up a blog, Immigration Orange, where I periodically posted on the developments of my trip, and was hoping that with the help of great thinkers and comments from readers, we could tackle these problems in the best way possible. [read more]"