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46 migrants found dead in abandoned trailer in United States

Published

2 years ago

June 29, 2022

Forty-six people were found dead after being abandoned in a tractor-trailer on a remote back road in San Antonio in what marked the latest tragedy to claim the lives of migrants smuggled across the border from Mexico to the US.

Sixteen people were hospitalised, including four children.

A city worker heard a cry for help from the truck shortly before 6pm Monday and discovered the gruesome scene, Police Chief William McManus said.

Hours later, body bags lay spread on the ground near the trailer as a grim symbol of the calamity.

San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said the 46 who died had “families who were likely trying to find a better life.”

“This is nothing short of a horrific human tragedy,” Nirenberg said.

It’s among the deadliest tragedies to have claimed thousands of lives of people attempting to cross the US border from Mexico in recent decades.

Ten migrants died in 2017 after being trapped inside a truck that was parked at a Walmart in San Antonio.

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In 2003, 19 migrants were found in a sweltering truck southeast of San Antonio.

The home countries of the immigrants and how long they were abandoned on the side of the road was not immediately known.

South Texas has long been the busiest area for illegal border crossings. Migrants ride in vehicles though Border Patrol checkpoints to San Antonio, the closest major city, from which point they disperse across the United States.

A city worker at the scene on a remote back road in southwest San Antonio was alerted to the situation by a cry for help shortly before 6pm Monday, Police Chief William McManus said.

Officers arrived to find a body on the ground outside the trailer and a partially opened gate to the trailer, he said.

Hours later, body bags lay spread on the ground near the trailer as a grim symbol of the calamity.

Bodies still remained inside.

Of the 16 taken to hospitals with heat-related illnesses, 12 were adults and four were children, said Fire Chief Charles Hood.

The patients were hot to the touch and dehydrated, and no water was found in the trailer, he said.

“They were suffering from heat stroke and exhaustion,” Hood said. “It was a refrigerated tractor-trailer, but there was no visible working AC unit on that rig.”

Those in the trailer were part of a presumed migrant smuggling attempt into the United States, and the investigation was being led by US Homeland Security Investigations, McManus said.

Three people were taken into custody, but it was unclear if they were definitively connected with human trafficking, McManus said.

Big rigs emerged as a popular smuggling method in the early 1990s amid a surge in US border enforcement in San Diego and El Paso, Texas, which were then the busiest corridors for illegal crossings.

Before that, people paid small fees to mom-and-pop operators to get them across a largely unguarded border.

As crossing became exponentially more difficult after the 2001 terror attacks in the US, migrants were led through more perilous terrain and paid thousands of dollars more.

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Heat poses a serious danger, particularly when temperatures can rise severely inside vehicles.

Weather in the San Antonio area was mostly cloudy Monday, but temperatures approached 100 degrees.

Some advocates drew a link to the Biden administration’s border policies.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy director at the American Immigration Council, wrote that he had been dreading such a tragedy for months.

“With the border shut as tightly as it is today for migrants from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, people have been pushed into more and more dangerous routes. Truck smuggling is a way up,” he wrote on Twitter.

Stephen Miller, a chief architect of former President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, said, “Human smugglers and traffickers are wicked and evil” and that the administration’s approach to border security rewards their actions.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican running for reelection, was blunt in a tweet about the Democratic president: “These deaths are on Biden. They are a result of his deadly open border policies.”

Migrants — largely from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador — have been expelled more than two million times under a pandemic-era rule in effect since March 2020 that denies them a chance to seek asylum but encourages repeat attempts because there are no legal consequences for getting caught.

People from other countries, notably Cuba, Nicaragua and Colombia, are subject to Title 42 authority less frequently due to higher costs of sending them home, strained diplomatic relations and other considerations.

US Customs and Border Protection reported 557 deaths on the southwest border in the 12-month period ending September 30, more than double the 247 deaths reported in the previous year and the highest since it began keeping track in 1998. Most are related to heat exposure.

CBP has not published a death tally for this year but said that the Border Patrol performed 14,278 “search-and-rescue missions” in a seven-month period through May, exceeding the 12,833 missions performed during the previous 12-month period and up from 5,071 the year before.

Yahoo News.

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EFCC continues raids on BDC operators in Abuja amid naira decline

Published

20 mins ago

May 7, 2024

Trends Admin

EFCC continues raids on BDC operators in Abuja amid naira decline

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) resumed raids on Bureau de Change (BDC) operators in Abuja on Tuesday, targeting currency traders as the Nigerian Naira weakens against the US Dollar.

The raid targeted Wuse Zone 4, a major currency exchange hub in Abuja. A BDC operator confirmed the raid to Peoples Gazette, stating simply, “EFCC people are here!”

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This latest raid marks a continuation of the EFCC’s efforts to stabilize the Naira. Since February, the anti-graft agency has conducted nationwide operations targeting BDC operators, with over 20 arrests made in Abuja last week.

The EFCC accuses some BDC operators of aiding currency speculators who contribute to the Naira’s decline. However, the effectiveness of these raids in stabilizing the currency remains a subject of debate.

EFCC continues raids on BDC operators in Abuja amid naira decline

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Three siblings attack school teacher for flogging brother in Port Harcourt

Published

6 hours ago

May 7, 2024

Trends Admin

Sonia Amadi

Three siblings attack school teacher for flogging brother in Port Harcourt

The family of a J.S.S.1 student of a secondary school in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, simply identified as Favour, on Monday, accosted a female teacher, Sonia Amadi on her way to work and flogged her for allegedly whipping their child.

According to the punch, the family members also allegedly went into the school compound and locked up the Admin Officer, Joy Ajayi, inside her office and threatened to do the same to her.

It was gathered that it took the intervention of other parents to prevent the family who had physically assaulted the female teacher from beating up the Admin officer.

Speaking with newsmen, an Admin Officer of the school, ‘Silver Bird International School’ Agip, Mile 4, in Port Harcourt, Joy Ajayi said she was in her office on Monday morning when three boys matched in, locked the door and said they wanted to flog her.

“One of the boys carried the scissors we used in doing school work and threatened to stab me. He asked why should they flog his brother in this school,” she narrated.

“All the teachers came out that there was no need for them to take this thing to that extent. But they refused to open the door. There was a parent inside here with me and we were resolving an issue.

“So the parent had to start begging them that they should calm down. They were here for more than 15 to 20 minutes. My teachers were outside trying to get inside but they could not

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“They were saying they would flog me and that we should go and call the Police or lawyer. I now said I have a right to defend myself. As I was talking, that was when their father came, and said they should open the door. They opened the door and their father now said he wanted to take his family and that he would come back later

“Before they came to my office and locked me up, a teacher was flogged, my English teacher Sonia Amadi when she was coming to school.

“They flogged her seriously. She is in the office and I have to ask her to calm down. The mother of the boy also slapped her as she was coming to school

“The same people who came to my office had already accosted my teacher and flogged her seriously. As she was entering the gate they followed her and matched straight to my office, “she added.

It was gathered that the management of the school has lodged a formal complaint at the Ada George Police Division where the teacher was issued a medical form to visit the clinic for treatment.

Meanwhile, a rights group, the Centre for Basic Rights Protection and Accountability Campaign, has condemned the alleged assault on the female teacher and invasion of the school by the student’s family

The National Coordinator of the group, Price Wiro, in a statement, said the parents of the student should have reported to the Ministry of Education if they felt their child was treated inappropriately or the Police in case of physical assault rather than taking laws into their hands.

We called on the Police to ensure a thorough investigation into the incident and anybody found culpable should be made to face the law.

“We condemn the invasion of the school by the student’s brothers and the locking up of an admin staff on account that she flogged their child in a manner that they considered inappropriate,” he said.

“I want to advise parents that if you feel that the way your child was treated in school is not right, there are channels for seeking redress. If there are physical signs of assault you can go to the police or the Ministry of Education to make a formal complaint.

“Resort to self-help by taking the laws into your hands is not the way to go. I therefore call on the Police to thoroughly investigate this matter anybody found culpable no matter how highly placed should face the law.”

Three siblings attack school teacher for flogging brother in Port Harcourt

metro

Depressed Delta lady kills self over hardship

Published

9 hours ago

May 7, 2024

Trends Admin

Depressed Delta lady kills self over hardship

A 34-year-old lady simply identified as Blessing has committed suicide in Warri, Delta State.

The deceased was said to have taken her own life after consuming sniper, a popular insecticide, and the go-to poisonous chemical substance for suicidal people.

Details of Blessing’s demise is still hazy but her friend simply identified as Ejiro, said the deceased had been battling chronic depression.

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The deceased also was said to have left behind a note, explaining why she took her own life.

In the note, she disclosed that life has been hard and no one has reached out to help her.

According to her: “She bought Sniper and drank it without anyone knowing. Before she drank it, she wrote a letter near her dead body, and she said in the letter that she was depressed. No help from family members and friends.”

At the time of filing this report, the remains of the deceased had been buried by her family members