FM4 Paso Libre

LOCATION: Guadalajara, Mexico

FM4 Paso Libre is a non-profit organization dedicated to the defense and promotion of the human rights of migrants and refugees through comprehensive humanitarian assistance, advocacy, and research in western Mexico. 

Among organizations working to shelter and promote the rights of people in migration and seeking asylum on the journey through Mexico, FM4 Paso Libre is unique, both in its location on the safer Pacific migration route and its involvement with the local community, working side-by-side with migrants to sustain the shelter and its activities. Its model of combining shelter, obtaining legal protection, documenting human rights violations on the route, and advocating is highly impactful and distinctive.

Along with the local community, it works for people in migration and refugees, as well as consolidating a sustainable model of humanitarian assistance. Their model combines shelter, legal protection, human rights violations documentation along the route, and defense before the government and is highly impactful and distinctive.

In response to the increasing need for legal services on the part of migrants and asylum-seekers, UUSC partnered with FM4 Paso Libre to support their new legal clinic program. When a migrant or asylum-seeker requests support, the legal clinic staff and volunteers provide services, interviewing that individual about their needs and helping them map out the best route to seek protection.

If they request representation in their cases, the legal aid coordinator takes on their representation in administrative procedures with the National Migration Institute (INM, in Spanish), as well as with the Mexican Commission for Refugee Aid (COMAR, in Spanish), and in making official reports of human rights violations committed against migrants and refugees.

Image Credit: FM4 Paso Libre