A group of 98 migrants traveling in a trailer were rescued in Mexico after being abandoned by the driver, a month after 53 undocumented immigrants died in one of those vehicles in the United States.
The discovery occurred Wednesday night on a highway in the state of Veracruz (east), after the presence of a truck from which numerous people were descending was reported, according to a police report.
“They indicated that they were abandoned by the driver,” says the part, without specifying the nationality of the travelers.
98 foreigners without documents
Civil Protection reported that 98 foreigners without documents to stay in Mexico were found at the site, including several minors. A hundred more would have escaped, according to testimonies cited by the press.
According to police reports, the driver would have opened the box of the vehicle for the occupants to get out, although Civil Protection officials point out that it would have been forced and that some escaped through the roof. No catches were reported.
A dozen people had to be transferred to hospitals due to bruises and symptoms of suffocation, while an AFP collaborator observed others getting out of the car with backpacks and covered in warm clothes.
According to the authorities, the trailer followed the route of the Gulf of Mexico, the shortest to reach the border with the United States, and its destination was the Mexican city of Nuevo Laredo, neighboring Texas.
On June 27, 56 migrants suffocated to death in an abandoned trailer near San Antonio, Texas, including 26 Mexicans.
Meanwhile, on December 9, a trailer carrying some 160 migrants crashed into a pedestrian bridge on a highway in Chiapas (south), leaving 56 dead.
One of the most dangerous forms
Trucking is one of the most dangerous modalities used by smugglers to bring migrants to the United States.
The finding in Veracruz occurred on the same day that a bus accident left 16 dead, including 13 Venezuelans, presumably migrants, and 47 injured in Nicaragua.
Both events occurred while in Chiapas hundreds of migrants blocked a road in front of the Immigration offices to demand permits that allow them to travel through Mexico to the United States, without fear of being deported.
Since 2014, some 6,430 migrants have died or disappeared en route to the United States, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and 850 perished in accidents or due to traveling in subhuman conditions.
