At least 46 migrants were found dead Monday in and around a large trailer truck that was abandoned on the roadside on the outskirts of the Texas city of San Antonio.
The grim discovery was one of the worst disasters involving migrants in the United States in recent years — and came five years after a similar deadly incident in the same central Texas city, a few hours from the Mexican border.
“At this time we have processed approximately 46 bodies that have been triaged and tagged and declared deceased,” San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood told reporters.
He said that 16 people had been transported to the hospital alive and conscious — 12 adults and four children.
There were no initial details on the age or nationalities of the deceased.
“The patients that we saw were hot to the touch, they were suffering from heat stroke, heat exhaustion, no signs of water in the vehicle, it was a refrigerated tractor-trailer but there was no visible working A/C unit on that rig,” Hood said.
Officials said three people were in custody over the incident.
“Tonight we are dealing with a horrific human tragedy,” San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg told a press conference.
“So I would urge you all to think compassionately and pray for the deceased, the ailing, the families,” he said.
“And we hope that those responsible for putting these people in such inhumane conditions are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
– ‘Alleged human smuggling’ –
San Antonio, which lies about 250 kilometers (150 miles) from the border, is a major transit route for people smugglers.
It has also been gripped by a record-breaking recent heat wave, and temperatures in the area hit 103 degrees Fahrenheit (39.5 degrees Celsius) on Monday.
The vehicle was found on a road near Highway I-35, a major US artery that stretches all the way to the border with Mexico.
A large-scale emergency operation was underway at the scene involving police, firefighters and ambulances.
According to San Antonio police chief William McManus, authorities were first alerted by an emergency call at about 5:50 pm local time (2250 GMT).
“A worker who works in one of the buildings up here behind me heard a cry for help,” he told reporters.
“(He) came out to investigate, found a trailer with the doors partially open, opened them up to take a look, and found a number of deceased individuals inside.”
He said the probe had been turned over to the federal Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
In a statement, the DHS said it had initiated an investigation after receiving the call from San Antonio police “regarding an alleged human smuggling event”.
Dozens of emergency responders who had worked at the scene underwent a stress debriefing following the operation.
“We’re not supposed to open up a truck and see stacks of bodies in there, none of us come to work imagining that,” Hood said.
– ‘A better life’ –
Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican who advocates a tough line on immigration, hit out at President Joe Biden over the disaster — blaming the Democrat’s “deadly open border policies.”
“These deaths are on Biden,” Abbott tweeted. “They show the deadly consequences of his refusal to enforce the law.”
Beto O’Rourke, the Democratic party’s candidate to run against Abbott in November, called for “urgent action” following the incident.
“Dismantle human smuggling rings and replace them with expanded avenues for legal migration that reflect our values and meet our country’s needs,” he said.
Mexico’s foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, called the incident a “tragedy” and said the Mexican consul was headed to the site.
Ebrard said the nationalities of the victims were not yet known, but that two Guatemalans were among the survivors.
San Antonio was the site of a similar migrant tragedy in 2017, when 10 people suffocated to death in a sweltering trailer with broken air conditioning and clogged ventilation holes as they traveled into the United States.
Dozens more had been hospitalized with heat stroke and dehydration — with the truck believed to have been holding as many as 200 people, most of whom fled when it stopped in a parking lot. The truck driver later pleaded guilty to charges related to the deaths.
After news broke of Monday’s discovery, the archbishop of San Antonio, Gustavo Garcia-Siller tweeted “Lord have mercy on them. They hoped for a better life.”
“Once again, the lack of courage to deal with immigration reform is killing and destroying lives.”
In Geneva, the United Nations’ human rights office said it was “deeply disturbed” by the incident.
“This is not the first such tragedy, and it illustrates again the critical need for regular safe pathways for migration as well as for accountability for those persons whose conduct has directly led to such loss of life,” said spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani.
