178 migrants rescued from trailer in Mexico

178 migrants rescued from trailer in Mexico

Mexican officials on Sunday were attempting to return almost 200 Central American migrants to their home countries after they escaped an abandoned trailer.

The migrants were found Saturday in a trailer in Veracruz state, about 640 km from the US border, Mexico's National Institute of Migration said. The rescue came a week after 10 undocumented immigrants died in a packed, overheated trailer in San Antonio, Texas.


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Officials told AFP news service the 178 occupants of the truck Saturday apparently realised they had been abandoned by the traffickers and a few escaped, seeking help from local residents who provided food and water.

The Central Americans were shuttled to a migration centre for medical assistance before the process began to return them to their home countries, the migration agency said.

In the San Antonio case, a Florida trucker is facing charges that could bring the death penalty. James Mathew Bradley Jr., 60, told police he was unaware of the human cargo packed in his rig.

But one passenger told authorities about 100 people stuffed in the trailer Bradley was hauling took turns breathing through a hole in the wall. More than two dozen survivors were rushed to hospitals, some in critical condition.

Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly -- who is leaving the post to serve as chief of staff to President Trump -- said the Texas tragedy demonstrated the "brutality" of the human smuggling rings.


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"These smugglers have no regard for human life and seek only profits," Kelly said.

178 migrants rescued from trailer in Mexico

Seven Mexicans among 10 migrants dead in Texas truck

By AFP
PUBLISHED: 17:31 BST, 26 July 2017 | UPDATED: 17:31 BST, 26 July 2017

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The parking lot of the Walmart in San Antonio, Texas, where a truck trailer was found with 10 deceased immigrants
inside it on Sunday

Seven Mexicans were among the 10 migrants who suffocated in an overcrowded, sweltering truck smuggling them into the United States, Mexico said Wednesday, up from an initial figure of four.

The Mexican foreign ministry said it had confirmed that at least 34 Mexicans were being transported in the truck, whose driver was arrested after the horrific scene was discovered Sunday at a Walmart parking lot in San Antonio, Texas.

Twenty-seven Mexicans remain hospitalized after the ordeal, it said in a statement, warning others trying to reach the US of "the high risk of resorting to human trafficking networks."

The Mexican government is working to repatriate victims' remains and help families whose loved ones are hospitalized travel to the US to visit them, it added.

As many as 200 migrants may have been crammed into the trailer, US authorities say. Many fled in SUVs that were waiting in the parking lot, according to witness accounts.

Survivors have told of taking turns breathing through a tiny air hole to stay alive as the driver, Florida trucker James Mathew Bradley Jr -- who says he did not know what his cargo was -- forged ahead despite the migrants pounding on the trailer walls.

One migrant who died in the tragedy was a 20-year-old Guatemalan, the government there has confirmed.

Seven Mexicans among 10 migrants dead in Texas truck