Dozens dead in fire at migrant facility in Mexico
Blaze broke out late Monday at a holding centre in Ciudad Juarez across the border from El Paso, Texas.
Dozens of people were killed and injured after a fire started in an immigration detention facility in northern Mexico near the US border.
The blaze occurred late Monday at a facility in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas.
Images from the scene showed ambulances, firefighters, and vans from the morgue around the smoke-covered facility with rows of bodies lying under shimmery silver sheets.
#Comunicado 🗞️| @INAMI_mx lamenta el fallecimiento de 39 personas migrantes extranjeras, derivado de un incendio que se originó poco antes de las 22:00 hrs del lunes en el área de alojamiento de la Estancia Provisional de Cd. Juárez, Chihuahua. https://t.co/NCe0yExH9T pic.twitter.com/vhT9cgXzsq
— INM (@INAMI_mx) March 28, 2023
At least 39 people died in the fire. Twenty-nine injured people were taken to hospitals, said Mexico’s National Immigration Institute.
Mexico’s attorney general’s office launched an inquiry and has investigators at the scene, according to media reports.
A rescuer – who asked not to be identified because he was not authorised to speak to the press – estimated there were about 70 migrants, mostly Venezuelans, at the site.
Vinagly, a Venezuelan woman, stood outside the immigration centre, desperate for information about her 27-year-old husband who had been detained there.
“He was taken away in an ambulance,” she told AFP news agency. “They [immigration officials] don’t tell you anything. A family member can die and they don’t tell you he’s dead.”
Ciudad Juarez is a major crossing point for migrants entering the United States. Its shelters are full of migrants waiting for opportunities to cross or who have requested asylum in the United States and are waiting out the process.
The US administration of President Joe Biden has been hoping to stem the record tide of people undertaking often dangerous journeys organised by human smugglers to get to the US.
In February, Biden proposed new restrictions on asylum seekers, hoping to stifle the rush of people to the southern border when COVID-related controls are lifted.
The new rules say those who arrive at the border and simply cross into the United States will no longer be eligible for asylum. Instead they must apply first for asylum in one of the countries they pass through to get to the US border, or apply online via a US government app.
About 200,000 people try to cross the border from Mexico to the United States each month. Most are from Central and South America, and cite poverty and violence back home in requesting asylum.
A recent report by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) states that since 2014, some 7,661 migrants have died or disappeared en route to the US, while 988 perished in accidents or while traveling in subhuman conditions.