Authorities have revealed that about eight Chinese migrants have been found dead on the coast of southern Mexico, after their boat capsized.
The bodies of the seven women and one man were discovered on a beach in San Francisco del Mar, Oaxaca, the state’s prosecutor’s office said in a statement, adding that the migrants were on an illegal route to the United States.
Treacherous boat rides up the coast of Mexico are often used by migrants hoping to cross into the US in an attempt to bypass checkpoints on closely monitored land routes.
The Oaxaca prosecutor’s office said the migrants had traveled on a boat operated by a Mexican man, which set off Thursday from Tapachula, Chiapas state, near the Guatemala border. One Chinese man survived the trip, the statement said. It did not explain what happened to the boat’s operator.
The prosecutor’s office said it was working with federal agencies to investigate the incident and the Chinese embassy in Mexico to identify the bodies.
Rocketparrot News reports that the number of Chinese migrants illegally entering the US from Mexico has skyrocketed in recent years.
