Human traffickers in Mexico are purportedly using Uber to shuttle
Central American migrants through the country’s northern border with the
United States.
Early last month, Mexican authorities stopped a caravan of five
vehicles carrying 34 Central American migrants between the northern
Mexican states of Zacatecas and Coahuila.
A Coahuila state official at the National Migration Institute (INM)
told Reuters that four of the five vehicles were linked to the popular
app-based taxi service, although it is still unclear whether or not the
traffickers had hailed the cars themselves. The drivers told authorities
that they did not own the cars but were drivers for Uber.
In a statement, Uber Mexico said that it was not responsible for the
incident and that it was cooperating fully with authorities in the
investigation.
“The company does not own the cars registered on the platform, nor
does it employ the drivers, who are independent contractors,” Uber said.
There has been a surge of migrants – especially women and children –
crossing Mexico in route to the U.S. and, facing pressure from their
counterparts to the north, Mexican authorities have been cracking down
on human trafficking.
“First we saw them on trains, then on buses, then on trucks and today
we see them in rented vehicles,” said Segismundo Doguin, the Coahuila
state official.
The Uber drivers allegedly left from the city of Monterrey before
picking up the migrants about 200 miles to the south in Matehuala. The
caravan was headed toward Reynosa on the border with the U.S. state of
Texas.
Uber has said that it does not operate in Matehuala.
The migrants told authorities that they paid about $162 for the ride.
This is not the first time that Mexican authorities have caught
smugglers using Uber, as earlier this year seven other vehicles hauling
migrants were detected in the area of San Luis Potosi state.