In Mexico, police freed 280 asylum seekers locked inside a tractor-trailer that was abandoned Friday on a roadside in the southern state of Veracruz.  

Mexico City, May 11 (RHC)-- In Mexico, police freed 280 asylum seekers locked inside a tractor-trailer that was abandoned Friday on a roadside in the southern state of Veracruz.  

A Red Cross worker said the migrants were lucky to be alive, after local residents responded to their pleas for help.  Jorge García told reporters: “Because of the screaming, people came from nearby.  I don’t know who opened the trailer, but it’s a good thing they opened it, because look at the state of these people.  They were behind a fake wall inside the trailer.  Most of them are dehydrated.”

The 280 asylum seekers came from Cuba, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Ecuador, Guatemala and Honduras.  Among them were 18 children.  They were apprehended by Mexico’s National Migration Institute, which will determine their status.