More than 100 children and teenagers from Guatemala flew home on Wednesday after being found on a truck in Mexico en route to the United States, one of the largest recent turns of unaccompanied minors to the Central American country.
Guatemala’s migration agency said this week that a flight to Guatemala City brought 106 youths between the ages of 12 and 17 who had traveled without relatives.
“We are seeing more and more children and young people coming back because we are very concerned,” said Wanda Aspuac, an official at Guatemala’s Migration Agency, noting that many of them are teenage boys with only primary education.
Guatemala had already received 430 unaccompanied minors from Mexico and the United States between January and March before the last group was found by Mexican authorities in a trailer in the eastern state of Veracruz.
Most of the unaccompanied minors who reach the United States from Central America are from Guatemala, according to U.S. records of migrant encounters at the southern U.S. border.
Speaking at the migration office in Guatemala City, Ronnie Chagill said his 17-year-old brother, Oscar, plans to rejoin their father in Chicago, frustrated by the lack of education in their hometown, and will soon make the trip back. Will try.
“There is nothing to advance us… the school we attend is a three-hour walk,” he said.
Another 17-year-old, Glendi, one of nine siblings, was looking forward to a better future than was possible in her rural hometown, where she could only get a basic education, said her aunt Rutilia bin Ich.
The girl hoped to live with her sister, who was already in America, and help take care of her younger brothers.
“Living in extreme poverty is what led her down this path,” Bin Ich said.
