The migrants were packed in, dehydrated and medicated to inhibit their basic needs, according to their own testimonies.
The Mexican National Institute of Migration (INM) located 206 migrants who had been abandoned by alleged traffickers in a trailer near the city of José Cardel, Veracruz, where they were forced to ingest substances to endure confinement.
The rescue, according to an INM statement issued this Monday, took place last Saturday and the migrants, from and Honduras, were “overcrowded, dehydrated and medicated to inhibit their basic needs, according to their own testimonies.”
Of the 206 migrants located, 132 Guatemalans traveled in family units, as well as three families with 12 people from Honduras.
Among those traveling alone, 35 men, four women and 20 minors (15 boys and five girls) from Guatemala were found; and three adults of Honduran nationality.
“The minors and the nuclear families were channeled to the System for the Integral Development of the Family (DIF), while the adults moved to the INM facilities to carry out the corresponding immigration procedures,” the immigration agency stated.
In addition to the fact that the migrants claimed that they had been medicated, it emerged that the trailer box, adapted with metal supports to form a second floor, was covered with sealing material to prevent its contents from being identified by the X-ray cameras of the security forces.
The migrants had also been identified, presumably by the traffickers, by means of bracelets.
The driver of the truck, according to the National Migration Institute, had fled the place, leaving the migrants locked in the trailer box, in a recurring practice.
The fact reflects the unprecedented migratory flow, with more than 2.76 million undocumented migrants intercepted by the United States at the border in the fiscal year 2022.
Meanwhile, Mexico registered an annual increase of more than 43% in the number of “persons in an irregular situation” in the country in the past year, when it detected 444,439.
Migrants who cross Mexico to reach the United States have also faced an uncertain future since May 11th, after Washington put an end to Title 42, a health law with which they expelled 2.8 million foreigners under the pretext of the coronavirus pandemic.
In its place, the US government now applies Title 8, which increases the penalties for those who cross the border illegally.
Original article at https://aristeguinoticias.com/1707/mexico/localizan-a-206-migrantes-abandonados-en-trailer-y-obligados-a-ingerir-sustancias/
Translated by schools for Chiapas.