Sixteen injured were also taken care of and suffered from exhaustion due to heat. Heavy goods vehicles such as this are a means of transport frequently used by migrants wishing to enter the United States from Mexico.
Le Monde with AFP
The number of people found dead on Monday, June 27, in a truck in Texas amounts to at least 46, according to a new assessment communicated during a press conference by the chief of the firefighters of the city of San Antonio . Charles Hood also clarified that sixteen injured – twelve adults and four children – had been taken care of and were “aware” when transporting health services.
heavy goods vehicles such as that found in San Antonio, about 240 km from the border with Mexico, are a means of transport frequently used by migrants wishing to enter the United States. Such a trip is extremely dangerous, especially since these vehicles are rarely air conditioned and their occupants quickly come to lack water.
“The patients we saw were burning to the touch, they suffered from heat and exhaustion; we did not find the slightest trace of water in the vehicle,” listed the firefighters.
“tragedy”
The Mexican Minister of Foreign Affairs, Marcelo Ebrard, regretted on Twitter a” tragedy “and indicated that the Mexican consul, although we do not” know the nationalities “of the victims, was going on site.
The Texas Republican Governor, Greg Abbott, immediately seized the drama to reject the fault of Democratic President Joe Biden. “These deaths are [the responsibility of] Biden. They are the result of his fatal policy of opening of borders,” he attacked.
The arrivals of clandestine migrants have increased sharply after the election of Joe Biden, although the latter has been trying since his arrival at the White House to stem the migratory influx by entrusting this thorny case to his vice-president Kamala Harris.
In 2017, a similar tragedy had marked the spirits: ten migrants had died in an overheated trailer parked in a parking lot near San Antonio.