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In Mexico, thousands of migrants who want to reach the United States cross the country hidden in dangerous means of transport such as trucks or trailers. One of them was found on the highway that leads to Veracruz with 343 people on board, including 103 unaccompanied minors.
Inside the trailer of an abandoned truck in the state of Veracruz, 103 unaccompanied minors were found, mostly from Guatemala, according to the authorities on March 6.
This becomes one of the biggest finds of migrant children traveling through Mexico to the US border.
The truck was also transporting 212 adults from El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Ecuador, reported in a release the National Institute of Migration (INM), which acted in coordination with the Criminal Investigation Agency (AIC) of the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic of Mexico.
Another 28 migrants from Guatemala and El Salvador were traveling as a family, bringing the number of passengers to 343. The migrants wore colored bracelets as a means of identification.
From the Twitter account, the INM said that in coordination with the Criminal Investigation Agency of the Mexican Prosecutor’s Office, they rescued 343 foreign migrants who were in the box of an abandoned trailer on the Cosamaloapan-La Tinaja highway, Veracruz.
According to the INM, “the trailer was located without a driver, but the presence of people was detected inside the box, which had a double floor of metal structures, as well as fans anchored in the lower part and vents on the roof.” .
In one of the photos distributed by the INM, plastic bottles and other items were scattered inside the trailer.
The children and families were placed in the custody of the Veracruz family services system, while the other migrants will be processed to determine their legal status in Mexico, the institution announced.
The INM found 79 migrants last week at the Tijuana border crowded into several hotel rooms.
Trailers are usually the means of transportation used by migrants to cross Mexico, although they are dangerous due to the high temperatures inside and the long periods to which travelers are exposed in the midst of suffocating overcrowding.
In June 2022, a truck carrying 85 people was found in Texas, 53 of whom had died due to poor ventilation.
A phenomenon that overwhelms authorities on both sides of the border
In early 2023, Mexican authorities found 57 unaccompanied minors from Guatemala at a checkpoint near the US-Mexico border, along with another 20 children in a group of Central Americans in the state of Chiapas.
Also in this state, at the beginning of the year, some 269 people were found in a trailer.
Mexico deported almost 100 young Guatemalans in February who were found in different parts of the country.
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the flow of migrants in Mexico increased by 8%. Some 2.76 million undocumented immigrants were detained at the border with the United States in 2022.
The new immigration policy of the United States, the country where the majority of migrants seek to arrive, consists of welcoming 30,000 migrants a month from Nicaragua, Cuba, Venezuela and Haiti, but with the notice that the rest who arrive by land will be deported to Mexico.
With Reuters, EFE and local media
