Mexican officials find 175 migrants crammed in a truck trailer near southern border

Mexican authorities found 175 migrants crowded ina truck trailer in the southern state of Chiapas, news agency Reuters reported citing the National Migration Institute (INM). The migrants were mostly from Guatemala.

The incident emerges to be the latest mass human smuggling incident to be detected in the country.

In a statement, INM said that immigration agents heard yells and banging coming from inside the vehicle when it was stopped at a checkpoint in Chiapas.

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INM said that despite the driver's refusal to open the truck's back door, migrants' faces could be seen via vents in the compartment.

The institution posted images of people standing close together inside the vehicle before descending one by one with the assistance of INM agents.

The report mentioned that most of the migrants were from Guatemala, with others from Ecuador, El Salvador and Honduras. One person was from the Dominican Republic and one was from Pakistan. There were 28 unaccompanied youngsters from Guatemala and two from El Salvador in the group.

Recent incident of truck-trailer fire in Tamaulipas

Earlier this month, local authorities said that a tractor-trailer and a van crashed on a highway in the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas, killing 26 people.

The Tamaulipas' public security ministry said that two vehicles crashed about half an hour outside of the state capital Ciudad Victoria and then caught on fire.

Authorities found the truck carrying the trailer was no longer at the scene when they arrived at the site of the crash.

A source at the Tamaulipas prosecutors' office said investigators were unsure whether the driver of the truck had fled or if he was also killed in the crash.

Reuters cited a source as saying that the passengers of the van, believed to be from a private transportation business, included children.

Massive migrant issue

Migrants escaping poverty and violence in Latin America frequently pay smugglers to sneak through Mexico on their way to the United States.

This year, more than 300 people were discovered in a tractor-trailer in the eastern state of Veracruz.

According to US Homeland Security official Blas Nunez-Neto, migrant interactions at the US-Mexico border have decreased by 70 per cent since the expiration of Covid-era border limitations known as Title 42 on May 11.

But despite that, Panamanian data shows the number of US-bound migrants crossing the dangerous jungle between Panama and Colombia has soared this year. It underlines the challenge the US faces as it seeks to curb surging migration.

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