They rescued 126 Haitian migrants inside an abandoned container in Guatemala

A group of 126 migrants, mostly Haitians, were rescued this Saturday from a container abandoned by Guatemalan police. The group He was trying to get to Mexico to cross over to the United States.

Among those saved, 106 are from Haiti, eleven from Nepal and nine from Ghana, as detailed in a press conference by spokesman for the Guatemalan National Civil Police, Jorge Aguilar.

Officers were alerted to the presence of an abandoned trailer on a road between the towns of Nueva Concepción and Cocales, in the south of the country.

As the vehicle approached, the calls for help and the knocking on the walls of the container gave the clue to the officers, who they opened the doors and found the 126 people inside.

Photographs released by the police showed the migrants get out of the van with backpacks or sitting on the road.

Those rescued received health care and were then transferred to shelters at the Guatemalan Migration Institute. According to Migration spokesperson Alejandra Mena, all will be sent back to Honduras, from where they entered the country, because they do not have the necessary papers, take the Guatemalan newspaper Free press.

Due to its geographical position, the The Guatemalan territory is a natural passage used by thousands of migrants from Central America, from Haiti and African countries in order to realize the so-called American dream, despite the expulsions carried out by the American immigration authorities.

As reported on Saturday by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), More than 90,000 migrants have crossed the jungle of the dangerous Darien Gap in Panama this year alone to reach the United States, Mexico or Canada.

The region, in which each year thousands of Guatemalans, Hondurans, Salvadorans and Nicaraguans emigrate to the United States, is also facing a migration crisis due to the passage of a wave of thousands of migrants, mainly Haitians, in search of better opportunities, despite the dangerous and arduous journey.

So far this year, more than fifty migrants died in Panama as he tried to cross the Darien jungle area, bordering Colombia, an entity from the Panamanian prosecutor’s office reported this week.

On Friday, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said more than 7,500 Haitian migrants were deported in less than three weeks by the United States, which chartered 70 flights to deport them.

On the same day, Mexican authorities intercepted 652 migrants, including 355 minors, who were transported in three trucks on a highway in northeastern Tamaulipas state, according to official sources.

So far, authorities have been able to detect that 564 migrants have come from Guatemala, 39 from Honduras, 20 from El Salvador, 28 from Nicaragua and one from Belize. According to reports, there were at least 197 minors traveling alone.

With information from EuropaPress, AFP, EFE

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