A total of 359 migrants, mainly Central Americans, who were traveling crammed into a tractor-trailer were detained in the Mexican state of Veracruz (east), the National Institute of Migration (INM) reported this Sunday.
“Around 3:30 a.m. today (9:30 a.m. GMT), at a checkpoint on the Coatzacoalcos-Veracruz free highway, Federal Immigration Agents (AFM) detained the transport unit to carry out the routine check, when they heard voices that came from the rear of the vehicle,” the INM shared in a statement.
According to the Institute, 294 come from Guatemala, 38 from Nicaragua, 15 from El Salvador, eight from Honduras and four from Ecuador.
The agents opened the rear doors of the truck and found the migrants crowded together and proceeded to remove them from the place and identify their origin.
The driver and the vehicle were made available to the Attorney General of the Republic (FGR).
“The INM endorses its commitment to safe, orderly and regular migration, with full respect and safeguarding the rights of people in the context of mobility, without detriment to their nationality, social, economic or political status,” the statement concluded.
The region is experiencing a record migratory flow to the United States, whose Customs and Border Protection Office detected more than 1.7 million undocumented immigrants on the border with Mexico in fiscal year 2021, which ended on September 30.
While Mexico has intercepted more than 252,000 undocumented migrants from January to November and deported more than 100,000 in the same period, according to the Migration Policy Unit of the country’s Ministry of the Interior.
The Mexican Commission for Refugee Aid received a record 131,488 refugee applications in 2021. EFE