SAN ANTONIO (Texas), June 28: Forty six people, believed to be migrants were
found dead in a tractor-trailer in a remote area in south- western San Antonio
in Texas on Monday. It has been described as one of the deadliest human-smuggling
tragedies in recent US history.
On Monday afternoon, a worker who heard a cry for help found a trailer with
the doors partially open, and as he opened the door he found the bodies and
called the police, San Antonio police chief William McManus said. Bodies were
piled one on top of another.
Sixteen survivors - 12 adults and four minors - were taken to hospitals.
There was no sign of water inside. Patients were too hot to touch as they suffered
from heat stroke. Temperature outside was very high, 99 deg F.
Two of the survivors were identified as Guatemalan, Mexican Foreign Affairs
Secretary Marcelo Ebrard tweeted.
The US Homeland Security is investigating. Three people were taken into custody.
The tractor-trailer had US licence plates, believed to be fakes used by traffickers.
“We know of 46 individuals who are no longer with us who had families, who
were likely trying to find a better life, and we have 16 folks who are fighting
for their lives in the hospital,” San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said.
Migrant smuggling at the southern Mexican border is common incident. In 2003,
19 people died when they were abandoned in a trailer in Victoria, Texas. Similarly,
In 2017, 10 people died in a trailer. At Guatemalan border last year 55 migrants
died in a crash. A migrant pays around $10,000 to human smugglers. At least
650 migrants died crossing the US-Mexico border in 2021. They mostly try dangerous
routes to realise their American dream.
The Federal Government has so far been unable to find a way out to stop this
inhuman smuggling of undocumented migrants at the unregulated Mexican border.
