“To date, 53 people have died and three have been seriously injured,” the Mexican Attorney General’s Office quoted by AFP said in a statement without specifying the nationality of the victims.
The victims are citizens of neighboring Guatemala, according to the Chiapas State Civil Protection Service, where the accident occurred.
An initial report pointed to 49 dead and 37 injured, three of them in serious condition, following an accident near Tuxtla Gutierrez, the capital of the southern state of Chiapas, which borders Guatemala.
According to initial explanations given to the press by the Civil Protection Service, the migrants were traveling in a truck trailer. According to Civil Defense witnesses, a vehicle that followed him at an excessive speed overturned at a bend and crashed into a wall.
The truck carried “more than 100 people of different nationalities,” according to a statement from the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in Mexico City.
“According to the testimonies of survivors, most of them are from Guatemala,” said Regional Director of Civil Protection, Luis Manuel García.
Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei promised “all necessary consular assistance, including repatriation” in a message of condolence and solidarity posted on Twitter.
“I deeply regret the tragedy caused by the overturning of a truck in Chiapas carrying migrants from Central America. It is very painful, ”wrote his Mexican colleague Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Twitter.
The National Institute for Migration (INM) said in a statement that survivors will be offered “humanitarian visitor cards” in addition to humanitarian aid such as food and shelter.
INM said it will coordinate with local and federal authorities to “provide consular assistance, identify bodies. [e] cover the costs of the funeral. “
Firefighters and an ambulance were deployed to the crash site en masse. The wounded were taken to private and public hospitals in the region.
The accident occurred in the state of Chiapas, a gateway for migrants from Central America, mainly from Honduras and El Salvador, who hoped to reach the United States.
Truck transport is one of the common modes of transport for passers-by. Accidents involving heavy trucks carrying people are common in southern Mexico, where migrant smuggling operations take place.
“To avoid such tragedies, alternative channels of migration and legal means are needed,” the Mexican office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said in a message of condolences.
Mexico, which is a traditional transit corridor for migrants, this year receives a record number of arrivals not only from Honduras and El Salvador, but also from Haiti.
From January to October, 108,195 asylum applications were registered in the country, a record according to the latest official figures cited by AFP.
The United States has taken a tough line. In early October, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said the travel made by the migrants was “extremely dangerous and unsuccessful” during a visit to Mexico City.
