343 migrants found inside abandoned truck trailer in Mexico

Mexican authorities on Sunday found 343 migrants inside an abandoned freight truck container on a highway, 103 of which were unaccompanied minors, according to a statement by the Mexican government. 

The truck trailer was found without a driver on Sunday evening in the state of Veracruz along a route often used by smugglers to transport people from Mexico to the U.S. border. 

The adult migrants were originally from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Ecuador, said Mexico’s National Migration Institute. Around 28 migrants from Guatemala and El Salvador were traveling as families. 

Most of the 103 unaccompanied minors were from Guatemala. The children will be placed into the custody of Veracruz’s family services system. 

It remains unclear why the driver fled and left the migrants in the trailer. However, the migrants were found to be in good health. 

There have been several prior incidents where migrants have been found dead inside abandoned trailers, most of the time due to overheating or lack of ventilation. In June of last year, 53 migrants were found dead inside a trailer after they had been abandoned on the outskirts of San Antonio Texas. 

However, the trailer found on Sunday had fans and ventilation ports cut into its roof that provided oxygen to those inside. Additionally, inside the trailer was a structure that created a second level. 

The smugglers also identified the migrants by placing color-coded bracelets on their wrists to tell them apart. 

Mexican authorities found 103 unaccompanied minors mostly from Guatemala inside an abandoned truck trailer in the eastern Mexican state of Veracruz, the government said, in one of the biggest recent discoveries of migrant children traveling through Mexico https://t.co/LDzuS7zD3l pic.twitter.com/Jawjgg6xck

— Reuters (@Reuters) March 6, 2023