Twelve adults and four children survived and were taken to hospitals. The mayor of San Antonio speaks of a “terrible human tragedy”.
Gruesome find in the US state of Texas: 46 dead migrants were discovered in a truck in the greater San Antonio area. San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood confirmed the preliminary number of victims on Monday evening (local time). According to this, 16 survivors were taken to hospitals, twelve adults and four children. Mayor Ron Nirenberg spoke of a “terrible human tragedy”.
The survivors were conscious when they were taken to hospitals, Fire Chief Hood said. “The patients we saw were hot, they suffered from heat stroke.” According to the National Weather Service, the maximum temperature in San Antonio on Monday was around 38 degrees.
Hood said there was no water in the trailer. It was indeed a refrigerated truck; however, no cooling system was running.
Authorities announced three arrests. The truck was found near Interstate 35, which leads to the border with Mexico. Migrants hidden in trucks are repeatedly smuggled into the United States from Mexico. It is about 250 kilometers from San Antonio to the border with the neighboring country. In 2017, ten dead migrants were also discovered in a trailer in the city, and dozens of people had to be hospitalized.
Mexico’s Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard spoke on Monday of a “tragedy” with regard to the 46 dead. He announced that the Mexican consul would go to the scene of the accident, even if the nationality of the victims was not yet known.
The arch-conservative governor of Texas, Greg Abbottmeanwhile made the migration policy of President Joe Biden responsible for the deaths of the 46 migrants. “These deaths are Biden’s fault,” Abbott said on Twitter. They are “the result of his deadly open borders policy,” Abbott said. It has “deadly consequences” if the law is not enforced.
The opposition Republicans accuse Biden of taking too lax a course in migration policy and in securing the southern border. They also want to use this topic in their campaign for the midterm congressional elections in November.
The case is reminiscent of the Austrian refugee tragedy of 2015. On August 27, 2015, an Asfinag employee discovered a 7.5-ton refrigerated truck on the Ostautobahn (A4) near Parndorf that was parked in a breakdown bay. The bodies of 71 refugees were in the truck. The three main perpetrators have since been sentenced to life imprisonment.
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(APA/DPA)