MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – A four-year-old Honduran boy was found traveling alone near to the Rio Grande river that separates Mexico from the United States with no one to claim him, the Mexican government said on Wednesday.
Mexico’s National Migration Institute (INM) said the boy was found unaccompanied among trees and thickets as he walked towards the border. He was close to Reynosa, a Mexican city long troubled by violence, that sits across from McAllen, Texas.
A group of three mothers and six children were located in the same area, but none of the adults took responsibility for the boy or acknowledged him as a relative, the INM said.
The migrants, all Hondurans, were detained when a flyover of the area spotted a group of women and children running and ducking for cover in grasslands and trees, the institute said.
The boy, who was not named, is one of thousands of children to have arrived at the border during a jump in arrivals since U.S. President Joe Biden took office signaling more humanitarian immigration policies than his predecessor Donald Trump.
Consular authorities and Mexico’s national human rights commission were informed of the boy’s situation, the INM said.
The ten migrants were taken into the custody of a local branch of a Mexican authority dedicated to family welfare.
Mexico’s government says people smugglers recommend migrants take children with them on their journey from Central America to make it easier to apply for asylum in the United States.
(Reporting by Dave Graham and Diego Ore; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
