Mexico has said it is investigating allegations that six Mexican women were sterilised without their consent in a US migrant detention centre, warning that such operations would be "unacceptable".
Rights campaigners alleged last week that a number of hysterectomies had been carried out at the privately run Irwin County Detention Centre in the US state of Georgia.
"We are already in contact with six (Mexican women) who could potentially have been subjected to this type of procedure," Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard told reporters on Tuesday.
"It's something unacceptable."
Mexican consular officials were interviewing the women to gather more information, he said.
"If confirmed, it's a major issue and... measures must be taken," Mr Ebrard said.
The allegations came from a whistleblower, a nurse at the centre, where some detainees are held under Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody.
The nurse said that detained women told her they did not fully understand why they had to get a hysterectomy - an operation involving the removal of all or part of the uterus.
"I've had several inmates tell me that they've been to see the doctor and they've had hysterectomies and they don't know why they went," she said.
Project South, the Georgia Detention Watch, the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights and South Georgia Immigrant Support Network filed a complaint to the government on behalf of detained immigrants and the nurse.
US Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal has called for an urgent investigation into allegations that at least 17 women were subjected to unnecessary gynecological procedures that she called "the most abhorrent of human rights violations".
