At least 650 migrants have lost their lives trying to cross the border that separates Mexico and the United States this year, according to data published by the United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM).
This is the worst data recorded by the UN agency since in 2014 it began to count the deaths at this border crossing, one of the busiest in the world.
"This increase is worrying considering that most of the data for this border region is not released until after the end of the year," the IOM said in a statement last Wednesday.
Migrants try to cross the Rio Grande from Mexico to reach the United States.Fernando Llano / AP
The agency did not specify the cause of death for the migrants, but many do not survive the high temperatures they must endure as they attempt to reach the US border on foot.
Others drowned when trying to swim across the Rio Grande.
Data from the UN agency is in line with that of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which recorded 557 deaths on the southwest border during fiscal year 2021 (which runs from 1 October to September 30).
This figure is higher than the 254 deaths in 2020 and 300 in 2019, according to the CNN television network.
[Florida Governor asks for $ 8 million to send undocumented immigrants to other states]
Deaths on the border between the United States and Mexico represent 61% of the 1,060 produced in the American continent so far this year.
In total, 3,575 migrants have died at this border crossing since 2014, according to the IOM database.
Year after year, hundreds of thousands of migrants try to reach the United States in search of a better future, a flow that different governments try to manage by setting up migration plans.
They declare a state of emergency in Yuma, Arizona, due to the massive crossing of migrants
Dec. 11, 202100: 50
The Administration of President Joe Biden this week restarted by court order the program
Stay in Mexico
, created by former
president
Donald Trump, which forces asylum seekers to wait for the resolution of their cases in Mexican territory.
This caused an avalanche of arrivals at different border points that saturated the authorities' ability to process migrants and determine their destination.
[The Biden Administration eliminates a requirement imposed by Trump to obtain the 'green card']
The hope of reaching US soil also leaves fatalities far from the border, as happened this week with the death in the Mexican state of Chiapas of at least 55 migrants in Mexico, most of them Guatemalans, when the truck in which they were traveling was overturned. about 150 people.
All of them spent days hiding in the house of coyotes and then circumvented the controls of the Mexican authorities in their objective to reach the northern border.