MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) — Uruguayan officials say a Nigerian man seeking to migrate to the United States wound up in the South American nation instead.
Leonardo Arguello oversees the Social Development Ministry’s office in Cerro Largo department northeast of Montevideo.
Arguello said Friday that the man, who has not been publicly identified, reports his age as 39. The man is staying at a ministry-operated shelter while Uruguayan officials figure out what to do with him.
The man told authorities he paid $400 to take a Russian ship to the United States. But after crossing the Atlantic the crew dropped him in southern Brazil. He crossed a river into nearby Uruguay Thursday to discover no one there spoke English.
The Nigerian Embassy in Argentina, which also oversees Uruguay, said it was unfamiliar with the case.
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