Mexican authorities found 343 migrants and refugees, including 103 unaccompanied minors in a truck container abandoned on the side of a highway. The National Institute for Migration (INM) said Monday that the trailer was found on the steamy Gulf Coast of Veracruz. It was on a route commonly used by smugglers to bring people from southeastern Mexico to the US border. Authorities said the people were in good health and it was unclear why the driver fled. Most of the children are from Guatemala. Immigrants who reach the United States often pay smugglers to bring their children.
The institute said the adults were mainly from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Ecuador. The children will be put into the custody of Veracruz’s family services system while the others will be processed to determine their legal status in Mexico, INM said The conditions in the container illustrated the increasing sophistication of smugglers. The trailer had fans and ventilation ports cut in the roof and the people wore colour-coded bracelets, apparently to identify them as smugglers’ clients.
Trucks are one of the most dangerous methods used by smugglers to transport illegal immigrants to the United States through Mexico. Last June, more than 50 people were killed in a charred semi-truck in San Antonio, Texas. In December 2021, a moving truck overturned in southern Mexico, killing 56 of his Central American migrants heading to the United States and injuring dozens.
