Nearly 100 migrants found abandoned in truck in Mexico

SAYULA DE ALEMÁN - Nearly 100 migrants traveling in a truck were found abandoned in Mexico, officials said, a month after dozens of people died in similar conditions in the United States.

The migrants were discovered Wednesday night on a highway in the eastern state of Veracruz, according to authorities, who said the vehicle was headed for the US border.

"They indicated that they were abandoned by the driver," a police report said, without specifying the migrants' nationalities.

Civil protection authorities said that 98 undocumented foreigners were found at the site, including several children.

Around 100 more were believed to have fled, witnesses told Mexican media.

About a dozen people were reported to have been taken to hospital due to bruises and symptoms of asphyxiation.

Transporting migrants in overcrowded trucks is one of the most dangerous methods used by people smugglers in Mexico.

In June, more than 50 migrants died after they were abandoned in a scorching hot tractor-trailer truck in San Antonio, Texas.

In December, 56 US-bound migrants from Central America were killed and dozens injured when the truck they were traveling in overturned in southern Mexico.

Around 6,430 migrants have died or disappeared en route to the United States since 2014, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Of those, 850 were the result of vehicle accidents or linked to hazardous transport, the United Nations agency says. - AFP