The 106 unaccompanied minors found in a truck in Mexico are sent back to Guatemala

By Sofia Menchu ​​and Josue Decavele

GUATEMALA CITY, March 8 (Reuters) – More than 100 migrant children and teenagers from Guatemala returned to their country on Wednesday after being found in Mexico in the trailer of a truck bound for the United States. unaccompanied minors in the Central American country.

The flight to Guatemala City brought home 106 youths between the ages of 12 and 17 who were traveling without families when they were found, the Guatemalan Migration Institute reported this week.

Wanda Aspuac of the Guatemalan Migration Institute said there was an increase in returns of children and teenagers, noting that many of those who returned on Wednesday were teenagers who had only completed the ‘primary school.

Guatemala had previously taken in 430 unaccompanied minors from Mexico and the United States between January and March, before the latest group was discovered by Mexican authorities in a caravan in the eastern state of Veracruz.

Most unaccompanied minors arriving in the US from Central America are from Guatemala, according to US data on encounters with migrants at the US southern border, often fleeing extreme poverty.

(Reporting by Sofia Menchu ​​and Josue Decavele in Guatemala City; Writing by Daina Beth Solomon; Editing by Sandra Maler; Editing in Spanish by Darío Fernández)