‘Difficult process’ identifying Texas lorry trailer death victims – authorities

&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpcnt">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpa">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<span class&equals;"wpa-about">Advertisements<&sol;span>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"u top&lowbar;amp">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<amp-ad width&equals;"300" height&equals;"265"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; type&equals;"pubmine"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-siteid&equals;"111265417"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-section&equals;"1">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;amp-ad>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div><p>More than a day after the discovery of a lorry trailer in Texas where dozens of migrants who died were abandoned in the sweltering heat&comma; few identities of the victims have been made public&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The lack of information illustrates the challenges authorities face in tracing people who cross borders clandestinely&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The number of dead rose to 53 on Wednesday after two more migrants died&comma; according to the Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office&period; Forty of the victims were male and 13 were female&comma; it said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Officials had potential identifications on 37 of the victims as of Wednesday morning&comma; pending verification with authorities in other countries&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;It’s a tedious&comma; tedious&comma; sad&comma; difficult process&comma;” Bexar County Commissioner Rebeca Clay-Flores&comma; who represents the district where the truck was abandoned&comma; said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The bodies were discovered on Monday afternoon on the outskirts of San Antonio in what is believed to be the nation’s deadliest smuggling episode on the US&sol;Mexico border&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>More than a dozen people were taken to hospitals&comma; including four children&period; Three people have been arrested&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The truck&comma; which was registered in Alamo&comma; Texas&comma; but had fake plates and logos&comma; was carrying 67 migrants&comma; Francisco Garduno&comma; chief of Mexico’s National Immigration Institute&comma; said on Wednesday&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The driver was apprehended after trying to pretend he was one of the migrants&comma; Mr Garduno said&period; Two other Mexican men had also been detained&comma; he said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Among the dead were 27 people from Mexico&comma; 14 from Honduras&comma; seven from Guatemala and two from El Salvador&comma; he said&period; One of the victims had no identification&comma; Mr Garduno added&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The incident occurred at a time when huge numbers of migrants have been coming to the US&comma; many of them taking perilous risks to cross swift-running rivers and canals and scorching desert landscapes&period; Migrants were stopped nearly 240&comma;000 times in May&comma; up by one-third from a year ago&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>With little information about the victims&comma; desperate families of migrants from Mexico and Central America sought word of their loved ones&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Several survivors were in critical condition with injuries such as brain damage and internal bleeding&comma; according to Ruben Minutti&comma; the Mexico consul general in San Antonio&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Guatemala’s foreign ministry said late on Tuesday that it had confirmed two hospitalised Guatemalans and was working to identify three possible Guatemalans among the dead&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Honduras’s foreign relations ministry said it was working to confirm the identities of four people who died in the truck and carried Honduran papers&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Eva Ferrufino&comma; spokeswoman for Honduras’s foreign ministry&comma; said her agency was working with the Honduras consulate in south Texas to match names and fingerprints and complete identifications&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The process is painstaking because among the challenges are fake or stolen documents&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Migrants typically pay 8&comma;000 US dollars &lpar;£6&comma;600&rpar; to 10&comma;000 US dollars &lpar;£8&comma;250&rpar; to be taken across the border and loaded into a tractor-trailer and driven to San Antonio&comma; where they transfer to smaller vehicles for their final destinations across the United States&comma; said Craig Larrabee&comma; acting special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in the area&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Conditions vary widely&comma; including how much water passengers get and whether they are allowed to carry mobile phones&comma; he said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Authorities think the truck discovered on Monday had mechanical problems when it was left next to a stretch of railway in an area of San Antonio surrounded by vehicle scrapyards that brush up against a busy road&comma; Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>San Antonio has been a recurring scene of tragedy and desperation in recent years involving migrants in lorry trailers&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Ten migrants died in 2017 after being trapped inside a truck parked at a San Antonio Walmart&period; In 2003&comma; the bodies of 19 migrants were found<br &sol;>&NewLine;in a sweltering truck southeast of the city&period; More than 50 migrants were found alive in a trailer in 2018&comma; driven by a man who said he was to be paid 3&comma;000 US dollars &lpar;£3&comma;500&rpar; and was sentenced to more than five years in prison&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div style&equals;"padding-bottom&colon;15px&semi;" class&equals;"wordads-tag" data-slot-type&equals;"belowpost">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div id&equals;"atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68ece7dfaa5c9">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<script type&equals;"text&sol;javascript">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;getAdSnippetCallback &equals; function &lpar;&rpar; &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;if &lpar; false &equals;&equals;&equals; &lpar; window&period;isWatlV1 &quest;&quest; false &rpar; &rpar; &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&sol;&sol; Use Aditude scripts&period;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;tudeMappings &equals; window&period;tudeMappings &vert;&vert; 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