The Sonora state prosecutor’s office yesterday revealed thirteen minors were among the migrants found safe in Sonoyta, a town across the frontier from Lukeville, Arizona.A search operation was set in motion earlier that day in response to an alert issued by the consulate of Ecuador about a number of abducted citizens, a statement said.The migrants found included 43 Ecuadorians, nine Colombians, five Mexicans, four Venezuelans, one Peruvian, and one Dominican, it added.
Read Also: 30 Migrants Declared Missing After Boat Capsizes Off Libya
Ecuador welcomed their rescue in a statement and urged its nationals ‘not to travel irregularly to avoid risks to life and human dignity.’
The prosecutor’s office did not report any arrests during the operation, which involved soldiers and police, but said it was investigating who was responsible.
Thousands of migrants fleeing violence and poverty risk abduction and exploitation at the hands of criminal gangs while crossing Mexico on the way to the US border.
In another report, an anonymous emergency telephone call yesterday led authorities to halt a train that contained a group of ‘suffocating’ migrants, two of whom were dead, police in Texas have confirmed.
The US Border Patrol stopped the train east of Knippa, a small community in southern Texas near the city of San Antonio, police said.
‘Approximately 15 migrants were discovered to be in need of immediate medical attention, five of the immigrants were flown out to San Antonio area hospitals, five were transported to area hospitals, and their conditions are unknown,’ the statement by the Uvalde Police Department said.’Two of the immigrants were pronounced deceased.’Police said that Union Pacific, a freight-hauling railroad company, ‘will lead the investigation.’Temperatures near where the train was stopped reached 87 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius) in the late afternoon, according to KSAT.com, an affiliate of ABC TV in San Antonio.
Africa Today News, New York
