Tapachula, Mexico — Three migrants and two Mexican citizens have died and 12 migrants have recovered from their injuries after a highway accident in northern Mexico, the National Institute of Immigration said Tuesday. ..
The three dead immigrants included a girl from Honduras. The nationalities of the other two remained unknown. The van on which the immigrants were aboard crashed in the northern border of Nuevo Leon.
It is not clear if the dead Mexicans included a car driver.
The injured included people from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua. The institute said they would be given a humanitarian visa and the bodies of the deceased would be returned to their home countries.
Victims of crashes with migrant smuggling are generally considered victims of crime in Mexico and are therefore eligible for such visas.
The risk of smuggling of migrants is increasing in Mexico, and freight trucks and buses are often packed with dozens of migrants.
On Tuesday, officials said angry residents of a town on the southern border of Mexico would seize three Mexican immigrant agents to demand state soldiers and fight a smuggling operation of migrants rampant by soldiers.
Residents say that migrant smugglers frequently attack, rob, or threaten them.
In May, six migrants were killed and 25 were injured after boarding a bus down the embankment through a guardrail in northern San Luis Potosi. The victims of the crash were all immigrants from Honduras, El Salvador and Cuba.
A much larger truck carrying migrants overturned on the highway near the city of Tuxtla Gutierrez in December, killing at least 56 people.
Edgar H. Clemente
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