Authorities in Nicaragua have discovered 15 migrants from Bangladesh wandering single file along a highway 12 miles south of the capital city of Managua. The men, between 18 and 33 years old, had been abandoned by their smugglers, Police Commissioner Leonidas Roque explained to El Nuevo Diario.
They had entered Nicaragua through the blind spots at the country's southern border with Costa Rica and had been walking for three days. Citing the testimony of Morobel Alí, the only one of the migrants able to speak some Spanish, Roque explained to local media that the men had paid the "coyotes," or traffickers, between $100 to $500 each to take them across Nicaragua to Honduras, according to the Associated Press.
"They also say that the mafia [migrant traffickers] robbed them," Roque stated. The men were hoping to ultimately make it to the U.S. and had left Bangladesh because of political problems.
After rescuing the migrants, the police took them to a health centre in the city of San Rafael del Sur, where they were treated for dehydration, digestive issues and minor injuries that they had sustained during the three-day walk, reported Bangladesh News 24. They were then taken to an immigration holding centre managed by the Directorate of Immigration in Managua.
Latin America often serves as a transit region for Asian and African migrants heading to the U.S., joining the flow of South and Central Americans also hoping to flee from violence and political strife by heading north, according to The Guardian.
