More than 100 unaccompanied minors have been discovered in eastern Mexico among 343 migrants crammed into the trailer of a truck, the Mexican government announced on Monday.
Among the migrants, from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Ecuador, a few families, but also "103 unaccompanied minors, mostly from Guatemala", said in a press release the National Institute for Migration (INM). ).
The migrants were discovered overnight from Sunday to Monday on a road in the state of Veracruz.
The driver was absent.
Bracelets “as a means of identification”
They "wore colored bracelets as a means of identification"
, specifies the press release of the INM.
These bracelets are generally distributed by smugglers who transport migrants to the border with the United States.
The trailer had a double floor.
Fans had been installed and vents created in the roof, said the INM.
Minors and families have been taken care of by the social assistance structures of the State of Veracruz, while adults will have to define their migratory status with the authorities.
Last Thursday, the INM announced the discovery in the state of Puebla, in the center of the country, of 136 migrants of different nationalities traveling in an unventilated truck.
Among them, ten minors were traveling alone.
Thousands of migrants, fleeing poverty, cross Mexico each year from South and Central America in the hope of reaching the United States.