43 Trafficked Migrants Rescued In Mexico

Mexican authorities said Thursday they rescued 43 Central American migrants, including 15 children, who were being trafficked to the United States in the back of a truck in "unsanitary" conditions

COATZACOALCOS, Mexico, , (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Aug, 2017 ) - Mexican authorities said Thursday they rescued 43 Central American migrants, including 15 children, who were being trafficked to the United States in the back of a truck in "unsanitary" conditions.

The undocumented migrants, who came mainly from Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua, were discovered during a routine traffic stop on a highway near the town of Poza Rica in the state of Veracruz in eastern Mexico, said police.

The pickup truck, which had an improvised white wooden trailer constructed over the back, was transporting them in "overcrowded and unsanitary conditions," said a state police report seen by AFP.

The truck's driver and his assistant were arrested on human trafficking charges.

The migrants were handed over to immigration authorities. Hundreds of thousands of migrants cross Mexico each year seeking to reach the United States.

Central Americans who make the trip are often fleeing brutal gang violence in their home countries. The trend reached crisis levels in 2014, when some 69,000 unaccompanied children flooded the US-Mexican border.

They often travel in perilous conditions, prey to human traffickers known as "coyotes" and drug gangs that charge them "taxes" to cross their turf. Last month 10 migrants suffocated to death in the back of a truck that was found in a Walmart parking lot in San Antonio, Texas, just across the border.

The US truck driver in that case was arrested and could face life in prison or the death penalty.