More than 100 Haitians found in trailer in Guatemala as desperate efforts to reach U.S. continue [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

Migrants, mostly from Haiti, are detained in Tapachula, Mexico, on Sept. 11. (Juan Manuel Blanco/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)

By Miriam Berger
Today at 4:44 p.m. EDT


Guatemalan police rescued 126 mainly Haitian migrants from an abandoned shipping container on the side of a road Saturday — highlighting how the desperate flow of people from Haiti and across South America has not abated despite the recent wave of U.S. deportations.

Guatemalan authorities said they searched the trailer around dawn after residents heard screams coming from within, the BBC reported. The shipping container was found in an area between the towns of Nueva Concepción and Cocales in the country’s south.

Police spokesman Jorge Aguilar told reporters that of the 126 undocumented people found inside, 106 were from Haiti, 11 from Nepal and nine from Ghana, AFP reported. Police suspect they had paid to be illegally taken to the United States via Mexico by smugglers, who instead abandoned them on the road.

The treacherous journey appears to have begun in Honduras, said a spokeswoman for Guatemala’s migration authority, Alejandra Mena, the BBC reported. After first-aid checks on the migrants and asylum seekers, Guatemalan officials said, they would be deported back to Honduras and taken into custody there.

More:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/10/10/guatemala-migrants-haiti-smuggling-shipping-containers/