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Puebla (Mexico), Feb 20 (EFE).- Mexican authorities on Monday raised the number of migrants killed to 17, from Central America, Colombia and Venezueladue to the accident on Sunday on a highway in Puebla, a state in the center of the country.
Puebla officials confirmed the death of 2 more people who were hospitalized at the Tehuacán General Hospital after the accident on the Oaxaca-Cuacnopalan highway, at kilometer 88, where 15 passengers died at the time.
The Secretary of the Interior of Puebla, Julio Miguel Huerta Gómez, explained that the truck overturned at around 2:30 p.m. local time (20:30 GMT), so the Emergency units came to deal with the accident..
In a press conference, he said that on the bus 45 undocumented foreigners were travelingMost of them come from Colombia, Venezuela and Central America.
He reiterated that, up to now, it is 17 deceased migrants, men and women; while another 5 are reported in serious condition and 8 more are about to be discharged. The state government assured that it will follow the evolution of their health and will collaborate with the immigration authorities to define the situation of those affected.
Huerta Gómez emphasized that from the emergency call they carried out the necessary diligence to attend to each one of those involved.
11 Venezuelan migrants were traveling in a bus that overturned in Panama
According to Mexican civil organizations, 2022 was the most tragic year for migrants in Mexico, since some 900 died in the attempt to cross without documents from the country to the United States.
The deaths of migrants who travel overcrowded in buses have attracted attention, only on February 7, 14 died in a similar accident in Nuevo León, a border state with the United States.
The region lives a record migratory flow, with 2.76 million undocumented immigrants detained at the United States border with Mexico in fiscal year 2022.
Also last year, according to data from the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (Comar), Mexico received 118,478 petitions from migrants seeking asylum, the second highest number after 2021 with 131,448 cases.
EFE
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