In two separate incidents, around 300 US-bound migrants were found in appalling conditions in trucks in Mexico. Amnesty International is alleging that Mexico is unlawfully returning Central American asylum seekers.
Mexican officials announced late Saturday that they had taken into custody more than 300 Central American migrants who were being smuggled to the United States. The men, women and children "were travelling in grossly overcrowded conditions without enough ventilation, food or water," Mexican authorities said in a statement.
The migrants were from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador and included 55 children who were traveling with their parents or relatives, and 24 unaccompanied minors.
The largest group was found in Tamaulipas in Mexico's northeast, near the border to the US state of Texas, Mexican immigration enforcement officials said. Two trucks were stopped at a highway checkpoint and scanners detected 198 people inside.
Photos released by the institute showed people crammed inside a shipping container wearing jackets and wrapped in blankets. "They were traveling in deplorable conditions," the statement said. Three people were arrested for alleged human trafficking.
The Mexican Immigration Institute (INM) tweeted a photo of the inside of the container, writing in Spanish: "At the @INAMI_mx — SEDENA checkpoint, in #Oyama, #Tamaulipas, two trailers were detected with 198 migrants who traveled in deplorable conditions."
Second incident in days
On Friday, the Mexican Immigration Institute issued a statement saying that a truck had been found in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz which was transporting 102 central Americans who "displayed signs of dehydration and suffocation." The group included dozens of children.
Amnesty sounds alarm
In a recent report, Amnesty International has claimed that Mexican migration authorities are breaking international and Mexican domestic law by routinely turning back thousands of asylum seekers from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.
Commonly known as the "northern triangle" countries, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras are among the most violent nations in the world. According to Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas Director at Amnesty International, "These are heart-breaking stories of families, children, men and women fleeing from extreme violence in order to save their lives. Rather than providing them with the protection they are entitled to, Mexico is unlawfully turning its back on these people in need."
Asylum seekers from Central America are a main source of migrants trying to reach the United States, where President Donald Trump is clamping down on immigration and undocumented migrants.
Most migrants to the United States from the so-called "Northern Triangle" of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador are staying in Mexico for now — because of Donald Trump's new immigration policies.
Image: Reuters/C. Jasso
No longer first choice
In a migrant shelter in the southern Mexican city of Tenosique, near the Guatemalan border, a refugee from Honduras says he originally planned to move to the United States with his family. Trump's election has changed everything. "I wanted to go to the United States with my family, but we've seen that the new government there has made things harder."
Image: Reuters/C. Jasso
Lingering in Mexico
Concepcion Bautista from Guatemala cradles her newborn son in the same migrant shelter. She says she plans to head for the United States, but will linger in Mexico to see how US President Donald Trump's immigration policies play out. Her goal is to reunite with her family up north...
Image: Reuters/C. Jasso
A mere transit country?
…but for the time being, she believes applying for asylum in Mexico is a smarter move. Mexican asylum data and testimony from migrants in Tenosique suggest that although fewer Central Americans are trying to enter the US, plenty are still fleeing their poor, violent home countries, with many deciding to stay longer in Mexico, which has traditionally been a transit country.
Image: Reuters/C. Jasso
Tough immigration policies
The Trump administration has pointed out a sharp decline in immigrant detentions in the first few months of this year as a vindication for the president's tough immigration policies. The measures are already having another effect. In California, where farmers usually rely on workers from Mexico to bring in the harvest, many Mexicans are staying away, preferring to find work in their own country.
Image: Reuters/C. Jasso
Asylum applications on the rise
Migrants from Central America play football in the migrant shelter in Tenosique. The number of people applying for asylum in Mexico has soared by more than 150 percent since Trump was elected president. These days, Mexican immigrants would rather set up in Canada than the United States.
Image: Reuters/C. Jasso
Human smugglers up the price
One man from Guatemala says the prices charged by people smugglers have risen sharply since Trump took office, now hovering around $10,000 (9,100 euros), up from about $6,000 a few years ago. Migrants sit below a mural in Mexico with the words: "Our demand is minimal: justice."
Image: Reuters/C. Jasso
A new home
With Mexico's immigration authorities controlling migration more assiduously, Central Americans were forced to take more isolated, dangerous routes where the chances of being mugged were higher. "We've gone north several times, but every time it's got harder," says one man, who was deported from the United States in December. "Now, it's better if we travel alone, along new routes."
