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Desperate migrants, including women and children, packed in with chickens and sheep
Mexican authorities have found 600 migrants hidden in two trailers in Veracruz state, near where nearly 800 people died in the desert on 6 May.
The migrants, including around 40 children, and most of them women and children, were crammed into the trailers and chickens were displayed outside of them in local restaurants.
The farm equipment, a refrigerated delivery from Mexico City, was found during a raid on the truckers, and the migrants were taken to a police station in the neighbouring state of Quintana Roo.
Javier Chacon, spokesman for the mayor of the city of El Naranjo, Veracruz, described it as the biggest seizure of people in a long time.
“We are worried for these families,” Chacon said.
Mexico’s immigration institute confirmed the discovery, saying migrants had died and had been buried.
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“The exact numbers of the dead and the people buried could not be confirmed,” said Martha Avila, a spokeswoman for the agency.
Veracruz, one of Mexico’s main hubs for migrants, is home to Mexico’s first international airport and is the state bordering Guatemala that has borne the brunt of migration to the United States.
The latest large-scale migrant death in Mexico has left Mexicans of mixed opinion over what to do with the masses.
Activists have called for aid from international aid groups to assist the migrants. Others are calling for the government to halt deportations of migrants back to the heart of cartel territory.