The bodies of 27 migrants were found in June in the Arizona desert, when this region of the border between the United States and Mexico registered the highest temperatures of the year, the group Human Borders reported Tuesday.
This number, based on official data provided by the Pima County Medical Examiner’s Office in Tucson, Arizona, the number of migrants rises to 96 undocumented immigrants who died this year in that region.
The group warned that the number of deaths can increase due to high temperatures that have been recorded in recent weeks, with values above 43 degrees Celsius.
While the border is closed and Title 42 [medida sanitária para travar surtos, usada em março de 2020 para controlar o fluxo na fronteira terrestre devido à propagação da Covid-19] is still in force, migrants continue to die trying to cross very dangerous places,” lamented the director of the Arizona Human Rights Coalition, Isabel García.
Under the emergency statute established in 2020 by then-President Donald Trump to combat the pandemic, the vast majority of migrants detained at the border are immediately returned to Mexico.
For this reason, many of them, mainly those from Mexico, but also from other Central American countries, try to cross the border without being detected by the police, putting their lives in the hands of traffickers who, many times, abandon them to their fate. destiny in the middle of the desert.
Last year, there were 225 deaths of undocumented immigrants in the Arizona desert, the highest number in a single year since Human Borders, an organization that aims to prevent people from dying of dehydration at the borders, began counting deaths. deaths in 2006.
Source: Observadora
