Dozens of illegal migrants wash ashore

October 20, 2007

Mexico - Dozens of bodies, believed to be illegal migrants, have washed ashore on a Mexican beach.

The dead, who were all men, were thought to be trying to get to the United States from Central America.

The authorities suspect many more may still be in the water and a search and rescue operation is under way.

At this stage, bad weather is being blamed, but boats carrying illegal immigrants through Mexican waters are often overloaded or unseaworthy.

The gruesome discovery came after the civil protection authorities in Oaxaca had received calls that a boat carrying illegal immigrants from Central America had capsized off the Pacific coast.

"This morning, we got a report that a vessel carrying undocumented migrants had capsized or gone down," Oaxaca state public safety secretary Sergio Segreste told AP news agency.

"The assumption is that the cause of the accident was the rough weather."

Correspondents say there are numerous ways in which people-smugglers take immigrants to the United States via Mexico and traffickers are constantly seeking new routes which avoid checkpoints and customs officers.

Often people are carried first to Mexico by boat, from where they must make a second hazardous journey across the border hidden in trucks.

Other journeys involve hundreds of miles by sea to take immigrants directly to the US coastline.

Many Cubans who leave the island travel to Mexico first rather than trying to cross the Florida straits. Illegal immigrants often pay as much as $5,000 to be taken north.