MONTERREY, Mexico – Some 10,000 migrants and asylum seekers arrived at the United States-Mexico border daily last week, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Monday, amid record numbers of people moving north across the continent.

Some 6,000 people are entering southern Mexico daily, Mr Obrador said, and even higher numbers have been reaching the US-Mexico border.

“Last week, 10,000 migrants reached the northern border every day,” Mr Obrador said at his regular morning press conference.

In September, the number of migrants encountered at the US-Mexico border was on pace to approach, or surpass, previous monthly highs.

Mr Obrador emphasised officials must address root causes driving migration, including people’s need to find work and improve their living conditions.

“What we need is to build bridges of understanding and collaboration so that people are not forced to migrate,” he said, in advance of an upcoming meeting with foreign ministers from Latin American countries and officials from the US.

He also lamented the deaths of 10 Cuban migrants who were killed in a traffic accident in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas on Sunday. REUTERS