A total of 123 migrants of different nationalities, including 13 Nicaraguans, were detained by Federal Agents and members of the Mexican National Guard, when they were traveling on a tourist bus bound for the United States, reported authorities from the National Migration Institute ( INM).
According to a press release issued Monday night by the INM, the bus where the group of undocumented immigrants was traveling was intercepted by immigration authorities in the municipality of Palmar de Bravo, in the central area of the state of Puebla, in Aztec country.
The document details that of the total number of people detained, 82 were from Guatemala, 12 from Honduras, nine from Cuba, seven from El Salvador and 13 from Nicaragua, “who could not prove their regular stay in national territory,” it says.
The detained undocumented immigrants were taken to the offices of the institute in order to initiate an administrative procedure that allows them to define “their legal situation in Mexico,” the INM continues to explain.
Agents of the @INAMI_mx located 123 foreigners of various nationalities in a tourist bus that was traveling through the municipality of Palmar de Bravo, in #puebla. https://t.co/rW6sHLSEc1 pic.twitter.com/LjcCbEfGnx
— INM (@INAMI_mx) April 12, 2022
Driver and assistant arrested
During the operation, the Mexican authorities managed to arrest the bus driver and his assistant, as well as the transport unit, and they were referred to the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) of that country for being related to the “probable commission of a crime of human trafficking”.
“The INM endorses its commitment to safe, orderly and regular migration, with full respect and safeguarding the rights of people in the context of mobility in Mexico,” the document concludes.
The arrest of this group of migrants occurs just five days after the INM also reported the discovery of 70 migrants, including 14 Nicaraguans, hidden in a water well and in the engine room of a hotel in the southern city. of Oaxaca, capital of the state of the same name.
Related news: 14 Nicaraguan migrants are found by authorities inside a water well in Mexico
In a statement, the INM reported that as part of an immigration review, INM agents “found dozens of suitcases and backpacks with clothes in various hotel rooms, but without the presence of the owners.”
After that, the migration agents carried out a broader and more detailed review of the entire property, finding 27 men and 25 women from Cuba; 12 men and 2 women from Nicaragua and a man from Venezuela, in addition to two adult women and a minor of Cuban nationality in a family nucleus.
The region is experiencing a record flow of migrants to the United States, whose Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Office detected more than 1.7 million undocumented immigrants on the border with Mexico in fiscal year 2021, which ended on 30 of September.
Mexico deported more than 114,000 foreigners in 2021, according to data from the Migration Policy Unit of the country’s Ministry of the Interior.
In addition, the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (Comar) received a record 131,448 refugee applications in 2021.
