It is difficult terrain and already hot when a group of volunteers sets out on one of their search efforts. They are used to making their way in the desert north of the American border, but they never know what they might encounter.
TV4’s correspondent in the USA, Tomas Kvarnkullen, has joined the search – and it didn’t take long before something was found.
– It was something that looked like a bone, something white. I took my wand and turned it. It was a lower jaw, says volunteer Monica Reyes.
“Mostly find them dead”
This group of volunteers regularly goes to the Arizona desert. A place that is often referred to as a “forgotten burial ground”. In many cases, those who enter the United States, but who do not manage to get on from here, are never found.
– It affects me, because you think about what these people have had to go through.
Most often, it is the family that contacts the volunteers. Then the person may have been gone for several months, says volunteer César Ortegoza.
– It’s sad to say, but we usually find them dead. We have found people alive but not often.
Many are never found
He himself came as a refugee from Mexico. Helping families search for missing people or arranging a dignified memorial for those found dead has now become part of his life on the other side of the border.
– They want to be someone. Give their families better conditions. They come here in search of that dream. Often they don’t know that they risk dying in their search, he says.
On Saturday, the US House of Representatives voted through the debated support package of 61 billion dollars. Aid to Gaza and Taiwan also went through.
But according to César Ortegoza, the authorities are doing far from enough at home in the United States.
– We have found bodies or remains that have been lying around for several years. They don’t care, he says.
Since 1990, the remains of more than 3,000 people have been found in southern Arizona. But many are not found – and according to César Ortegoza, this was partly because it is up to volunteers to search for those who do not come forward.
– We must continue to do this and are prepared to do so. But we hope that one day it will end so we don’t have to do it anymore, he says.