A total of 133 migrants from Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras, including 15 unaccompanied minors, were found crammed into the refrigerated box of a tractor-trailer in the state of San Luis Potosí, central Mexico, the National Institute of Migration reported Tuesday ( INM).
Of the total number of migrants, 127 come from Guatemala; four from Nicaragua and two from Honduras. In addition, 10 people were traveling in a family nucleus and 15 are unaccompanied minors.
In a statement, the INM, dependent on the Secretariat (ministry) of the Interior, specified that minutes before 4:00 a.m. on Tuesday (09:00 GMT), INM agents located the tractor-trailer on state highway 75D, in the Río Verde section. -San Luis Potosi.
The agents requested the support of the Secretary of National Defense (Sedena) and the state police to locate and stop the unit in which it was intended to consummate the transfer of migrants of different nationalities, who could not verify their regular stay in Mexican territory.
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#Release ? @INAMI_mx, @SEDENAmx and State Police, identified 133 migrants: 127 from Guatemala ?? 4 from Nicaragua ?? and 2 from Honduras ??; They were found crammed into the refrigerated box of a tractor-trailer on state highway 75D, section Río Verde-#SLP. https://t.co/3PyoxbhR5k pic.twitter.com/l1YTUCQ7oi
— INM (@INAMI_mx) April 12, 2022
Cramped trips inside trucks or trailers are one of the most dangerous ways migrants use to clandestinely cross Mexico into the US, something for which they pay smugglers thousands of dollars.
Under this modality, a tragic accident was recorded on December 9, when a trailer overturned on the highway from Tuxtla Gutiérrez to Chiapa de Corzo, in the southern state of Chiapas, in which 56 migrants died.
More than 160 foreigners were traveling hidden in the vehicle, most of them from Guatemala, the Dominican Republic and El Salvador.
The authorities indicated that in the case of the tractor-trailer detected in San Luis POtosí of the 133 migrants, from Guatemala, 35 women and 73 adult men were traveling, as well as 15 unaccompanied minors and four people in a family nucleus.
In addition, four others, also in a family nucleus, from Nicaragua, and two members of a family from Honduras.
Related news: 14 Nicaraguan migrants are found by authorities inside a water well in Mexico
The note pointed out that the adults were taken to the INM offices to start the migration process that defines their legal status in Mexico, while the foreign family nuclei remained under the tutelage of the State System for the Integral Development of the Family (DIF). .
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 September 30.
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. Of these petitioners, more than 51,000 are Haitians.
