Mexican authorities search for relatives of abandoned migrant boy

By Lizbeth Diaz

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Mexican authorities on Tuesday were searching for the relatives of a boy, thought to be about 2 years old, who was found alone near a truck that had carried more than 100 migrants in suffocating conditions.

Wearing no shirt, the boy had stood by himself, surrounded by a handful of packaged snacks, half-empty water bottles, clothes from other migrants and black trash bags scattered on the ground.

Lutgarda Madrigal, the attorney for the protection of children and adolescents of Veracruz state, where the boy had been found, said it was still unclear where the boy was from.

“Until now, no one has approached to ask about him,” she said in a phone interview. “We’re in contact with the consulates of both Honduras and Guatemala.” Madrigal added the boy was not injured.

Madrigal said the boy, whose name authorities have not released, would be transferred to a social assistance center for unaccompanied migrant minors in the state capital, Xalapa.

Thousands of children from Central America have crossed illegally from Mexico into the United States without their parents this year, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.

Last week, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris visited a border patrol facility near the U.S.-Mexico border and urged a focus on children and practical solutions to migration.

(Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz in Mexico City; Writing by Stefanie Eschenbacher; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)