According to the president of Mexico, migrants who were afraid of being deported started a fire at an immigration detention facility by setting mattresses ablaze. The fire claimed at least 40 lives.
After the fire broke out late on Monday, rows of bodies were spread out outside the facility in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, which is across from El Paso, Texas, and a crucial migrant crossing point. These bodies were covered in silver sheets.
The National Immigration Institute reports that at least 40 individuals have died, while 29 others have been hurt and are in “delicate-serious” condition. The facility housed 68 guys from Central and South America at the time of the incident.
The incident was deemed terrible by Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who added that the head of the nation’s immigration department was there.
“They never imagined that this would cause this terrible misfortune,” Mr. Lopez Obrador said.
Ciudad Juarez, where shelters are crowded with people waiting for opportunities to cross into the US or who have requested refuge there and are waiting for a decision, is where tensions between officials and migrants have reportedly been running high in recent weeks.
The criminalization of immigrants and asylum seekers in the city was denounced in an open letter that was issued on March 9 by more than 30 migrant shelters and other advocacy groups.
It said that municipal police were questioning bystanders about their immigration status on the street without justification, accusing authorities of abusing and using excessive force when picking up migrants.
Earlier this month, hundreds of primarily Venezuelan migrants acting on untrue rumors that the United States would permit them to enter the country attempted to push their way through one of the international bridges to El Paso, demonstrating the high level of dissatisfaction in Ciudad Juarez. US officials prevented them from doing so.
Without elaborating on what those acts may have been, the national immigration agency stated on Tuesday that it “energetically rejects the conduct that led to this catastrophe.”
The agency has suffered from overcrowding in the detention facilities in recent years as Mexico has increased attempts to stop the flow of migrants to the US border under pressure from the American authorities. Also, there have been riots and protests at the nation’s immigration centers.
In Tijuana, a center for immigration experienced riots in October that had to be suppressed by the National Guard and law enforcement. The migrants involved were mostly from Venezuela.
On the Guatemalan border in the southern city of Tapachula in November, dozens of migrants rioted inside Mexico’s largest detention facility. In either case, nobody passed away.
