Social Issues

Mexican authorities find 70 migrants hiding in hotel well

Mexico City, Apr 6 (EFE).- Authorities discovered 70 undocumented migrants hiding in a well and a machine room at a hotel in the southern city of Oaxaca, Mexico’s INM immigration agency said Wednesday.

Agents carrying out a routine check “found dozens of suitcases and backpacks with clothing in several rooms of the hotel, but without the presence of the (luggage) owners,” the INM said in a statement.

The team decided to conduct a thorough search of the premises and sounds of people whispering led them to the migrants.

The group comprised 55 Cubans, including a family of three; 14 Nicaraguans and a Venezuelan.

Oaxaca state police accompanying the INM agents arrested a Mexican national on suspicion of human trafficking, according to the statement.

Despite the deployment of the Mexican National Guard to the country’s southern border, migrants continue to stream into the Aztec nation with the goal of reaching the United States.

Though most of the travelers are from Central America, the flow includes people from Cuba, Haiti, and South America, and even migrants from as far away as Asia and Africa.

The US Customs and Border Protection agency intercepted a record 1.7 million undocumented migrants trying to enter the country illegally in the fiscal year that ended on Sept. 30, 2021, while Mexico deported more than 114,000 migrants in the 2021 calendar year.

And Mexican authorities received a record 131,448 asylum requests last year, more than 51,000 of them from Haitians. EFE jmrg/dr

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