Rabat – The pursued “American dream” turned into a nightmare after 20 Moroccans found themselves held captive in a house in the city of Mexicali, Mexico while reportedly en route to the United States.
Police in Mexicali, a city in the Mexican state of Baja California, freed the Moroccan migrants, who were held by a criminal group.
According to news outlet Puntualizando, the operation came in response to reports from Mexican citizens who alerted local authorities about the detention of people in a house.
“The report indicated that several people were heard screaming from inside a house, but the language they spoke was not understood,” the news outlet reported.
The Moroccan migrants reportedly traveled to Egypt, then to Madrid, Spain, and took a flight to Nicaragua.
They then traveled to Guatemala where they took a train and a place to reach Mexicali in order to reach the US border.
Upon arriving in the city, an irregular migration smuggler group demanded a large sum of money in exchange for helping them cross into the US.
The group then reportedly held them captive in a house while awaiting the money.
Security services handed the 20 individuals to Mexico’s National Institute of Migration for an investigation.
Like numerous citizens across the world, many Moroccans choose dangerous routes in search of better opportunities.
Morocco, both as a transit and a destination country, processed 366,000 attempts at irregular migration to Europe over the past five years.
In 2023, the North African country arrested 75,000 migrants, representing a 6% increase year on year, according to data from Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
