The Mexican government said Thursday that at least 94 migrants had to get out of a sweltering abandoned cargo trailer at a stop in the sweltering Gulf Coast state of Veracruz.
Carlos Enrique Escalante, head of the National Office for migrant care, said migrants had to drill holes in the shipping container to get out, some through the roof.
Some were injured when they jumped off the roof of the trailer, but their injuries did not occur with fractures and were not life-threatening.
Escalante said local citizens near the city of Acayucan heard the noise and helped open the shipping container.
A much larger number of migrants are believed to have been on board and fled after escaping.
But migrants from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador were handed over to immigration authorities.
The discovery of the trailer on Wednesday recalls the tragedy that occurred in San Antonio, Texas, on June 27, when 53 migrants died because they had been abandoned in a suffocating cargo truck.
In Mexico’s southern state of Chiapas, which borders Guatemala, another migrant organization was still applying for transit visas that would allow them to pass through Mexico. They were still in the city of Huixtla on Thursday after leaving Tapachula earlier this week, saying maybe just don’t wait months for slow immigration paperwork in Tapachula.
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