Migrants freed in Mexico ‘lacked food and water’

Mexico City — Mexico has taken into custody more than 300 Central American men, women and children who were being smuggled to the United States without water or food, officials said Saturday.

The largest group — of 198 people crammed into the bottom of a truck — was found in Tamaulipas in the northeast, just below the US state of Texas, Mexican immigration enforcement officials said.

The migrants from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador “were travelling in grossly overcrowded conditions without enough ventilation, food or water,” they said in a statement.

Among the many child migrants, 55 were with their parents or relatives, while 24 were making the dangerous journey alone.

Just a week ago, another 174 Central Americans were caught in operations in the Mexican states of Coahuila and Tamaulipas. Amnesty International recently reported that Mexico deports thousands of Central Americans without taking into account their potential rights to treatment as refugees. —