"At the other border crossings, there are less controls but there is also more risk; the fact that authorities are present (here) makes it safer," Barilli said.

An even more difficult journey

Once they cross the border, however, the trip becomes more difficult. "The whole of Mexico is like a border," he said.

Since the 1994 signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a pact has existed between the US and Mexico to control the flow of Central American immigrants in exchange for a more permissive policy for its own immigrants, Barilli said.

"The anti-immigration laws in Mexico are laws imposed by the US," he said.

Meanwhile, the number of deportations of Central Americans from Mexico and the United States is increasing. In January, 377 Guatemalans were returned by air from the US but the number grew to 862 in May alone. A similar trend occurred with the deportations over land, which according to Marta Altoaguirre, head of the Vice-Chancellor’s Office for Human Rights and Attention to the Guatemalan Migrant, increased from 12,884 people in January to 18,422 in May.

In spite of measures taken by the US and Mexico to stem immigration, the number of immigrants is growing. The Casa del Migrante attended 8,669 migrants in 2002, 11,349 in 2003 (67 percent from Honduras) and, according to Walter Arrega, a member of La Casa del Migrante, the center expects to attend to about 14,000 this year.

Emigration due to socio-economic conditions

Patricia Bezares of the Guatemalan National Council for Migration said people are forced to migrate because they have a salary so low and working conditions that are so poor that they cannot make ends meet.

"Farm workers in Central America earn as much in one day as they could earn in the US in one hour," she said.

In fact, 55 percent of the 400 people interviewed for the study left jobs behind. Around 63 percent who had a job before leaving said they earned between US$7 and $9 a day, an amount higher than the minimum wage in most of the Central American countries.

"There is already an increase in emigration due to socio-economic conditions, but with the implementation of CAFTA (Central American Free Trade Agreement, signed by US and the region’s five countries in May) this problem will increase due to the negative impact it will have on small and medium-sized firms," Bezares said.

However, more important than the rise in numbers of people leaving, is the increase of human rights abuses against them.

Victims of abuse

The emigrants face a series of abuses in their bid to reach the US. To begin with, they are usually victims of the corruption that reins in the Central American customs offices, where officials charge them $2.5 to $6 to hand them the CA-4 visa, a document which should be free.

Those interviewed also reported to be victims of physical abuses, robberies and abuse of authority by customs officials and Mexican security forces.

The report says that 37 percent of those intercepted in Mexican territory are put in common prisons, facilities that are characterized by the lack of hygiene and overcrowding.

The increasing risks of crossing the border by land have led some immigrants to cross Tecun Uman by sea, instead of by the Suchiate River, and it would be impossible to know how many people may have lost their lives in the Pacific, according to Barilli.

To avoid abuses and death some hire a "coyote," or a person who smuggles them to the US. However, their services are not cheap.

"Between US$4,375 and $5,625," says Ramiro, a coyote from a village in the Guatemalan region of San Marcos on the Mexican border. He added that to cross Mexico, immigrants need a further $1,250 to bribe the authorities.

With or without money, Central Americans will continue to try to make it the US.

One of the main attributes of Central American emigrants is their perseverance. According to the study, 80 percent of those interviewed said they had been intercepted and detained at least once by the Mexican authorities, 25 percent twice and 13 percent at least three times.

"Basically, what defines the emigrants is their poverty, their desire to leave it behind and the courage to face an infinite number of obstacles in order to realize that dream," says the report.