Mexico Finds 343 Migrants in Abandoned Truck Trailer

Mexican authorities have found 343 migrants, including 103 unaccompanied minors, in an abandoned freight truck container on the side of a highway, the authorities said Monday.

The National Immigration Institute said the trailer was found Sunday night in the steamy Gulf coast state of Veracruz.

It was on a route often used by smugglers to bring people from southeastern Mexico to the U.S. border.

The migrants were well, and it was unclear why the driver fled, authorities said.

Migrants have been found dead inside abandoned freight containers in the past. But the migrants found Sunday were unharmed, and the conditions in the container illustrate the increasing sophistication of migrant smugglers.

The trailer had fans and ventilation ports cut in the roof, and the migrants wore color-coded bracelets, apparently to identify them as smugglers’ clients.

Most of the unaccompanied minors were from Guatemala. Migrants who make it to the United States frequently pay smugglers to bring their children afterward.

The institute said the adult migrants were mainly from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Ecuador.