Authorities find 121 migrants abandoned in a truck in Mexico

• Migrants were found abandoned in truck in Mexico.
• There were 121 people of different nationalities.
• They were overcrowded and authorities are investigating.

Officers of the Guardia Nacional (GN) found 121 migrants abandoned in overcrowded conditions in a truck in Nuevo León, a state in northern Mexico bordering Texas, according to the EFE news agency and journalist Lopez Doriga.

A citizen complaint about the presence of a badly parked vehicle on the Matehuala-Saltillo highway alerted authorities to the location of the migrants, originally from Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Cuba, according to the Guardia Nacional. The incident was recorded at kilometer 129+400 of the highway in the municipality of Galeana in the south of Nuevo León.

HOW DID AUTHORITIES FIND THE MIGRANTS?

“National Guards went to the area and had contact with the vehicle parked on the shoulder of the road. Upon approaching, authorities realized that the driver was not there and they heard screams coming from inside the vehicle,” the GN detailed in a statement. The security officers added that, when the officers opened the door of the vehicle, they observed several people, including minors, who identified themselves as migrants and did not have documents.

The people were provided with water and medical attention, in addition to being transferred to a migration station to carry out the proper procedures in order to receive consular assistance, define their legal situation, and, where appropriate, proceed with their assisted return. The vehicle in which they were transported was secured and made available at the delegation of the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) in Linares, Nuevo León.

A TRAGEDY LIKE THE ONE IN SAN ANTONIO WAS AVOIDED

The finding is reminiscent of the tragedy in June in San Antonio, Texas, where an abandoned vehicle was found carrying migrants of different nationalities, more than 50 of whom died due to lack of ventilation and high temperatures in the region. The region is experiencing a record migratory flow to the United States, whose Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has intercepted more than 1.82 million people so far in fiscal year 2022, which began last October.

In addition, Mexico received a record of more than 58,000 refugee applications in the first half of 2022, an annual increase of almost 15%, according to the Comisión Mexicana de Ayuda a Refugiados (Comar), the EFE news agency recently reported. Filed Under: Migrants found abandoned truck