UN blasts govt over forced disappearances in key report

Mexico has a "serious problem" with disappearances and lacks a comprehensive national list of the missing to effectively deal with it, according to a report the country's National Human Rights Commission was presenting to the United Nations on Monday.

Commission chairman Luis Raul Gonzalez Perez will ask the UN's Committee On Enforced Disappearances, based in Geneva, to make recommendations to Mexico's government on the issue, said the document, which The Associated Press was allowed to see.

According to the latest official figures, there are 23,271 people missing or not located in Mexico, of which 621 are being sought by the federal Attorney General's Office's Search Unit. The numbers were provided by the office's general prosecutor for human rights, Eliana Garcia, on Jan 19 to a forum in the Chamber of Deputies.