Honduran migrant boy is in limbo after being found in Mexico

(CNN Spanish) — A 10-year-old boy from Honduras is in legal limbo after almost a month ago he was found traveling alone in the midst of a group of migrants heading to the United States and who was detained by Mexican authorities in Veracruz, according to reported this Wednesday in a statement the Mexican National Migration Institute (INM), which is now looking for his relatives to reunify him.

According to the statement, the minor was traveling to the United States to reunite with his mother, he has no information about his father and his aunt, the person who took care of him, said that she can no longer be responsible for him.

The boy was found on July 18 when he was traveling as part of a group of 229 migrants of various nationalities who were intercepted in two buses in overcrowded conditions, the INM said.

The minor told Mexican immigration agents that “his aunt sent him to cross the border with the United States to look for his mother, since she could not be held responsible for him,” the statement explained.

He added that “his mother emigrated nine years ago to the United States, where he now has permission to work.” About her father, she said that she “doesn’t know anything about him”. No further details were given.

According to the INM, personnel from the institution contacted the boy’s aunt, who lives in Honduras, who told them that “he can no longer be held responsible for his care, and that is why he sent him to try to cross the border to look for his mother or another relative”.

Mexican authorities have not identified the minor, the aunt or the mother, and have said they are coordinating “efforts to contact his mother or another relative and return him to his family nucleus.”

CNN contacted the Honduran Embassy in Mexico City and the Honduran Foreign Ministry on Wednesday to find out if they were aware of the case and collaborating, but they had not yet replied.

The INM said that the child is in the facilities of the System for the Integral Development of the Family (DIF) of Xalapa, Veracruz.

Elvin Sandoval contributed to this report