Mexican troops find 150 migrants in trailer

MEXICO CITY: Some 150 Central American migrants, including 62 children, were found inside the back of a trailer when the vehicle was stopped at a highway checkpoint, the Mexican government said yesterday.

Federal police and Mexican immigration officials discovered the migrants while searching trucks on a highway in the southeastern state of Tabasco, according to joint statements from federal police and immigration authorities.

Tens of thousands of Central Americans fleeing violence and poverty in their homelands try to pass through Mexico to the United States every year, often transported by human traffickers in dangerous conditions.

There were 77 adults from Guatemala as well as 62 minors, one adult from El Salvador, six from Honduras and three from Nicaragua, who did not have any legal papers to be in Mexico, the statement said.

The statement did not detail the nationality of the children or if they were travelling with their parents and federal police did not immediately respond to a request for clarification.

The truck’s driver and a companion were arrested pending investigation and the immigrants were detained while consulates were contacted, pending their ‘‘assisted return’’ to their home countries, the statement said.

Trump has made tougher immigration laws a centrepiece of his administration and he has repeatedly said Mexico does ‘‘nothing’’ to stop Central Americans crossing Mexico on their way to the United States.

Mexican deportations of Central Americans are up more than 40% during the first half of 2018, to over 50,300, compared with the same period last year, according to official data from the interior ministry. — Reuters