By: Omar Silva, NP Staff Writer

Belize City: Sunday, 6th March 2023

Central American individuals are increasingly reconsidering the potential consequences of embarking on uncertain journeys before undertaking them. Recently, Mexican officials discovered over 340 people in an abandoned truck trailer in Veracruz on Sunday, including 103 unaccompanied minors, from countries such as Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Ecuador. This is one of the largest findings of migrant children traveling through Mexico in recent years, although all the individuals appeared unharmed, and the trailer had fans and ventilation ports.

It is common for undocumented migrants fleeing poverty and violence in Central America to pay exorbitant fees to people-smugglers to help them cross the US border. However, last year, 53 migrants were discovered dead in an abandoned truck trailer in Texas. On Sunday night, a total of 343 people were discovered in the vehicle, which is commonly used to transport migrants to the US border. The migrants were identified as smugglers' clients by their color-coded bracelets, and the trailer was littered with plastic bottles and garbage, as seen in a photo distributed by the National Migration Institute (INM) of Mexico.

Mexican social services will care for the migrants until their status is determined. According to CBS News, data from the US Border Patrol from October shows that at least 853 migrants died attempting to unlawfully cross the US-Mexico border in the previous 12 months, making the 2022 fiscal year the deadliest year for migrants recorded by the US government, surpassing the previous record of 546 migrant deaths in 2021. The Border Patrol also apprehended a record 2.2 million migrants at the southwest border during the same period.