- Drafting
- BBC News World
Image source, Guatemala Police
The migrants were rescued by Guatemalan police on Saturday.
Crowded, abandoned and screaming for help inside a shipping container on the side of a road.
This is how the Guatemalan police found 126 migrants at dawn this Saturday, who were rescued between the towns of Nueva Concepción and Cocales, in the south of the country.
Shortly before, locals had reported that screams were heard inside the trailer, and they raised the alarm.
Authorities believe the migrants were abandoned by smugglers who had been paid to take them to the United States through Mexico.
More than 100 of the people rescued are from Haiti. There are also people from Nepal and Ghana.
“We hear screams and blows”
Speaking after the discovery, a police spokesman said: “We heard screaming and hitting from inside the container. We opened the doors and found 126 undocumented people inside. “
The agents provided first aid to the migrants before escorting them to a shelter run by the Guatemalan Migration Institute.
A spokeswoman for the Guatemalan immigration authority, Alejandra Mena, said the migrants had arrived at Honduras and from there they began to make the dangerous journey north with the intention of reaching the United States.
They will now be transported back to the Honduran border and handed over to the authorities.
Worrying situation
The discovery comes just a day after Mexican authorities detained 652 migrants, including about 350 children, who were traveling in three double-trailer refrigerated trucks near the southern border of the United States.
Soldiers at a military checkpoint in Tamaulipas, on the Mexican-Texas border, searched the trucks after hearing voices inside.
The incident reflects growing concern over the number of migrants, including a large number of Haitians, who are taking risks in their attempts to reach the United States.
According to the Panamanian prosecutor’s office, since the beginning of 2021, more than 50 migrants have died while trying to cross the Darien Gap, a jungle corridor on the border with Colombia.
Image source, John Moore/Getty Images
Migrants camping before crossing the Darien Gap.
Haiti has suffered years of instability culminating in the assassination of President Jouvenal Moïse in July. The following month, the country was hit by a deadly earthquake.
Thousands of Haitians had already left the country in search of work in Latin American countries.
Many began trying to reach the United States with the belief that they qualify for the Temporary Protected Status, a temporary right to stay in the country that has been extended to Haitians already living in the North American country, but not to newcomers.
Last month, about 13,000 Haitians they met under a bridge that connects Del Río, in Texas, with Ciudad Acuña in Mexico. Since then, the United States has deported more than 7,500 people to Haiti, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Image source, Getty Images
More than 10,000 people, mostly Haitian immigrants, camped under the bridge that connects Del Río, in Texas, with Ciudad Acuña, in Mexico.
The United States’ special envoy for Haiti, Daniel Foote, resigned in protest at the deportations, saying that returning people fleeing an earthquake and political instability was “inhuman”.
But Marsha Espinosa, from the US Department of Homeland Security, reiterated that “our borders are not open and people should not make the dangerous journey (to the United States).”
Now you can receive notifications from BBC News Mundo. Download our app and activate them so you don’t miss our best content.
www.bbc.com
Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.