2023-10-02 06:40:13
Ten Cuban migrants, including a minor, who were traveling illegally in a truck, died on Sunday October 1 in a new road accident in the state of Chiapas, in southern Mexico, the second in less than a week.
The National Institute of Migration (INM) said in a statement that 17 other migrants, also from Cuba and mainly women, were seriously injured in the accident which occurred early in the morning.
Chiapas authorities initially reported 25 injuries, but the INM said 27 Cuban migrants, including five minors, were on board the truck.
” Speeding “
According to a police report, among the injured were three children aged six, seven and twelve, as well as a seventeen-year-old teenager. They were all transported to area hospitals. “According to initial findings, the driver was speeding, lost control of the vehicle which overturned (…) the driver fled”added the INM.
The accident occurred on the border with Guatemala, on the Pacific coast of the state of Chiapas, a common route for many migrants seeking to reach the United States.
The President of Cuba, Miguel Diaz-Canel, deplored this tragedy and called on Cubans wishing to leave to borrow “regular, safe and suitable routes to emigrate”. He said Havana’s embassy in Mexico City had offered to help.
This is the second accident of this type in less than a week. Two migrants were killed and 27 others were injured Thursday when the truck carrying them overturned in the same state.
At the beginning of August, in the west of the country, at least 18 people died and 23 others were injured in the accident of a bus which fell into a ravine and was mainly transporting migrants.
The most serious accident occurred in December 2021 when 50 migrants crammed into the trailer of a truck died in the state of Chiapas. The truck was carrying a total of 160 migrants. Most of the victims were from Central America.
Freight trains
Many migrants cross Mexico illegally crammed into buses, trucks and even freight trains in very difficult conditions in an attempt to reach the United States.
This weekend, in the northern states of Chihuahua and Zacatecas, nearly 3,000 migrants were left stranded in isolated areas when the freight trains they were traveling on stopped for no apparent reason.
Last week, the largest rail operator suspended 30% of its activities, overwhelmed by the influx of undocumented foreigners.
The US Border Patrol officially recorded 1.8 million migrant crossings at its southern border between October 2022 and August 2023. A record 233,000 people crossed the US southern border in August.
A report from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) released September 12 found that the border between the United States and Mexico has been the “the most dangerous land migration route in the world” in 2022, with 686 deaths or missing recorded.
Migrants are victims during their journey to the United States of smugglers, but also of attacks by criminals, as well as sometimes by the authorities themselves.
Faced with the influx of migrants who “overwhelm” Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador called ” help “ its American counterpart. On Friday, Washington and Mexico promised to redouble their efforts to strengthen their economic and security cooperation around the migration issue.
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