AFP

Migrants face another difficulty on their way to the United States: extreme heat

National Guardsmen and immigration agents from Mexico are inspecting a desert area near Ciudad Juárez, on the border with the United States, after finding the body of a man after relatives reported him missing. The cause of death: heat stroke, as reported by the induced collapse. by prolonged exposure to extreme temperatures. The victim: a 45-year-old Mexican migrant from the north-central state of Durango. Victims of homicides, accidents or thefts, migrants seeking to reach the United States are also suffering from the heatwave which is currently hitting Mexico and which is. caused dozens of deaths, including several. The discovery took place last Wednesday, a week after authorities discovered the body of a woman who died of dehydration, also in a desert area near Ciudad Juárez (Chihuahua state, north), where the thermometer is located these days -this. it's over 40°C. “It’s too hot, I arrived a little dehydrated, because the temperature doesn’t go down and it’s 43, 44 or 45 degrees,” says Dioner José Romero, a 25-year-old Venezuelan migrant. “The sun is too strong, it's not that I can't get used to it, but it's something different for me. I feel a little suffocated”, comments his compatriot Nelson Ramos in a shelter in a Catholic church in Juárez. The number of cases recorded since March associated with high temperatures rose to 155, after 30 new cases were reported between June 13 and 18, the government reported on Thursday – “Don't do it” – The Migrant's Body Mexican was found among the bushes. sand and under a gloomy sun that forced officers to cover their heads with their own clothes while forensic scientists carried out their work. Around it was trash and several empty bottles of water and electrolytes that the migrants left in their wake to endure the long haul. heads toward the Rio Grande or the border wall, some sections of which are up to nine meters high. The US Border Patrol points out that since last October, it has recorded 77 deaths of people in the El Paso sector, an area bordering Ciudad Juárez. this extends to other areas of Texas and New Mexico. Among the main causes of these deaths are heat stroke, drowning and falling from walls. “We must avoid doing this (going to the border) because of the high temperatures,” Mauricio Rodríguez, director of civil protection in Ciudad Juárez, told AFP. “I understand that people are forced but we advise them not to do it (…), the impact of the heat can lead to death,” added the official after the discovery of the man initially abandoned by the Mexican . trafficker who took him to the United States, who later returned to bury him in the desert. But when questioned by the migrant's family, he decided to reveal the location of the body. During their search, Mexican authorities found six other undocumented immigrants, one of whom showed symptoms of dehydration. Nearly 1.3 million irregular migrants crossed Mexican territory between January and May of this year alone, according to figures from the National Migration Institute (INM). On their way to the United States, many of them become victims of murder, accidents, theft, kidnapping and extortion. On Thursday, the prosecutor's office in the state of Oaxaca (southwest) reported the discovery of the bodies of three men on a beach in the municipality of Juchitán, apparently victims of a shipwreck during their trip, which often includes the dangerous Colombian-Panamanian. jungle of Darién, migrants suffer from other health problems such as respiratory, gastric, skin or musculoskeletal problems, since many travel tens of kilometers on foot and in unsanitary conditions, according to the NGO Médecins sans frontières. str-yug/axm/nn