MEXICO CITY —

Some 600 migrants from 12 countries were rescued Saturday in Mexico after they were found crammed into two tractor-trailers, the country’s National Migration Institute said.

The 145 women and 455 men, who hailed from Central America, Africa and the Indian subcontinent, were found in the southeastern state of Veracruz, the institute said in a statement.

The vast majority were from the Central American countries of Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua but a total of 37 were from Bangladesh, six from Ghana, and one person was from India and Cameroon each, the institute added.

The migrants were crammed into the trailers of two trucks, said Tonatiuh Hernandez, the local head of the Human Rights Commission.

“There are children, minors, I saw pregnant women, sick people,” Hernandez said.

As the corridor between Central America and the United States, Mexico has seen vast numbers of migrants flow through its territory.

Two caravans of several hundred migrants are currently making their way through southern Mexico, aiming to acquire documents that allow them to transit through the country.

The flow of undocumented migrants has surged with the inauguration of U.S. President Joe Biden, who has taken a more humane approach to the border crisis than his predecessor Donald Trump.

The United States has recorded 1.7 million people trying to enter illegally from Mexico between October 2020 and September 2021, an all-time high for the period.

Source: Voice of America