Migrant remains unearthed in Texas mass grave

This month, for the second successive year, scientists and students from Baylor University and the University of Indianapolis spent days exhuming the remains of unidentified migrants from a cemetery in Falfurrias, Texas.

They found mass graves with remains in rubbish bags, shopping bags, or even not in containers at all, according to a local newspaper.

Documents published on Saturday highlight the discovery at Sacred Heart Burial Park in Falfurrias, which come as part of a multi-year effort to identify immigrants who have died near the US-Mexico border.

The remote area is often deadly for immigrants from Mexico and Central America who set out on foot amid sweltering temperatures to avoid the nearby US Border Patrol checkpoint.

"To me it's just as shocking as the mass grave that you would picture in your head, and it's just as disrespectful," said one researcher.

The team exhumed 110 unidentified people from the cemetery in 2013.

This summer, researchers have performed 52 exhumations, but because some remains were stored together, further study will be needed to determine exactly how many bodies have actually been recovered.