Mexican authorities reported that at least 53 people died after a trailer filled with migrants crashed into a truck and overturned in Southern Mexico on Thursday, with local authorities saying the majority of the victims were the ones riding the trailer.
The Attorney General's office issued a statement that revised the death toll, which was first reported at 49. There were at least 58 people who got injured from the accident, three of which were severe, said the Civil Protection service of Chiapas state, which borders Guatemala.
Dozens of Dead Migrants
In a statement, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said that some of the victims who died included foreign nationals. In a Twitter post, Ebrard expressed his condolences to the victims and their families, saying that they were communicating with the State Government and Civil Protection regarding the accident to potentially contact the foreign ministries of the affected nations.
In another Twitter post, Mexican President Andres Manual Lopez Obrador said he deeply regretted the tragedy in Chiapas that involved Central American migrants. The official said it was a very painful incident and extended his solidarity with the victims' families, CNN reported.
In an interview broadcast on Foro TV, the state director of civil protection, Luis Manuel Garcia Moreno said the majority of the victims were citizens of Guatemala, based on statements from survivors. The official added that preliminary investigations found the cause of the accident was a mechanical problem.
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Thousands of migrants pass through Mexico while hiding inside tractor-trailers similar to the one that crashed on Thursday. This was to avoid checkpoints set up by the country's national guard and immigration agency. The majority of migrants were traveling to the U.S. border.
Recently, United States President Joe Biden's administration has received scrutiny for the large number of migrants arriving at the southern U.S. border. This has caused the American federal government to rely on Mexico to stop the flow of people coming to the border, the Washington Post reported.
Immigration to the U.S.
The majority of the hundreds of thousands of migrants who are fleeing poverty and violence in Central America are paying smugglers to illegally transport them in crowded and dangerous trucks over a long journey. The situation comes as last month, a migrant caravan heading through Chiapas made the trek on foot after the local government's recent crackdown on people willing to lift migrants to the border.
This meant that many of the migrants had to carry their children in their arms under the blistering heat and downpours prominent in southern Mexico's rural states. The government's tactic attempts to break the will of migrants and see if they give up on traveling to the American border.
Many have wondered how the recent accident does not happen more frequently amid the scores of families standing inside cramped and unsafe trailers for hours. One of the biggest, and most frequent causes of concern among migrants traveling in these conditions is suffocation when smugglers fail to provide sufficient ventilation or hydration for the hours-long trip inside the vehicles, BBC reported.
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