A group of 98 migrants traveling in a trailer were located by Mexican immigration authorities. People were abandoned by the driver.
The discovery occurred Wednesday night on a highway in the state of Veracruz, 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,” authorities said.
Civil Protection reported that 98 foreigners were found at the scene without documents to remain in Mexico, 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 descend, although Civil Protection officials indicate that it would have been forced and that some escaped through the roof. No captures were reported.
A dozen people had to be taken to hospitals due to bruises and symptoms of suffocation, while an AFP contributor observed others getting out of the car with backpacks and covered in warm clothes.
According to authorities, the trailer followed the Gulf of Mexico route, the shortest to reach the U.S. border, and its destination was Nuevo Laredo.
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 about 160 migrants hit a pedestrian bridge on a highway in Chiapas (south), leaving 56 dead.
Migrants at risk
Trucking is one of the most dangerous ways smugglers take migrants to U.S. territory.
Since 2014, some 6,430 migrants have died or disappeared on the way to the United States, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and 850 have perished in accidents or from traveling in subhuman conditions.
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