Migrants found in Texas: death toll rises to 53
Flowers, candles and bottles of water were dropped at the scene where dozens of migrants were found dead in a trailer in San Antonio, Texas, United States, on June 28, 2022.
More than a day after dozens of migrants were discovered dead after being abandoned in the sweltering heat in a tractor-trailer in San Antonio, few identities of the victims have been made public, illustrating the challenges facing authorities are struggling to find people crossing the borders illegally.
Victims were found without any identification and, in one case, with a stolen ID. Poor telephone service in remote villages makes it difficult to reach family members and determine the provenance of missing migrants. Fingerprint data is to be relayed and compared by different governments.
The number of victims rose to 53 on Wednesday, after the death of two more migrants, according to the office from the Bexar County Medical Examiner. Forty of the victims were male and thirteen were female, he said.
Officials had potential identifications on 37 of the victims as of Wednesday morning, pending verification with authorities in other countries.
It's a tedious, sad, and difficult, said Bexar County Commissioner Rebeca Clay-Flores, who represents the district where the tractor-trailer was abandoned.
The bodies were discovered Monday afternoon on the outskirts of San Antonio in what is believed to be the country's deadliest migrant smuggling episode at the US-Mexico border. More than a dozen people were taken to hospital, including four children. Three people were arrested.
The truck, which was registered to Alamo, Texas, but had fake plates and logos, was carrying 67 migrants, Chief Francisco Garduño said Wednesday. from the National Institute of Immigration of Mexico.
The driver was apprehended after trying to pretend to be one of the migrants, Garduño said. Two other Mexicans were also arrested, he said.
The dead included 27 people from Mexico, 14 from Honduras, 7 from Guatemala and 2 from El Salvador, a- he declared. One of the victims had no identification, Garduño said.
The tragedy occurred at a time when large numbers of migrants arrive in the United States, many of them taking perilous risks to cross rivers and canals and scorching desert landscapes.
With little #x27;information about the victims, desperate families of migrants from Mexico and Central America frantically sought news of their loved ones.
Several survivors were in a state critical with injuries such as brain damage and internal bleeding, according to Rubén Minutti, Mexico's consul general in San Antonio.
