Ciudad Juárez – At least 40 dead and 29 injured left a fire in a migrant detention center in this city in northern Mexico, on the border with the United States, said yesterday the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who attributed the fire to people who They protested against their deportation.
The incident broke out on Monday night at the facilities of the National Migration Institute (INM) in Ciudad Juárez, when there were 68 men inside, all of whom were of legal age from Central and South America.
“This had to do with a protest that they started, from, we suppose, that they found out that they were going to be deported, mobilized,” López Obrador said yesterday at his daily press conference. “As a protest at the door of the shelter, they put mattresses and set them on fire, and they did not imagine that this was going to cause this terrible misfortune,” he added.
The victims are “migrants from Central America, mainly, and some from Venezuela,” added the president, lamenting the tragedy and confirming the number of deaths. In this sense, the Guatemalan government reported that 28 of the deceased are of that nationality.
“So far, 28 Guatemalans have been confirmed among the” fatalities, the Guatemalan Institute of Migration said in a statement, adding that it was awaiting more information “in order to provide support and accompaniment to the families.”
“Irregular migration carries with it a series of risks, which have once again become evident,” warned the entity, which called on its compatriots to “make the right decisions before embarking on the trip, which often have no return, no final destination ”.
inquiry
The investigation of the case was assumed by the Attorney General’s Office and the National Institute of Migration (INM) of Mexico, indicated López Obrador. The place remained guarded by the military and national guards.
The INM said that the injured were transferred to four hospitals, where their condition was serious.
The fire in the detention center, unprecedented in this type of facility, started in the area where foreigners without papers are housed.
Witnesses observed the moment in which lifeguards removed bodies to put them in the parking lot of the immigration center before being removed by forensic personnel.
The fire in this center, located near the US border, caused the mobilization of firefighters and dozens of ambulances.
Many migrants had been transferred to this place in recent days after local authorities removed street vendors, many of them foreigners, from the area.
“I’ve been waiting for my children’s father since one in the afternoon, and when it was 10 (at night) smoke began to come out everywhere,” said Viangly Infante, 31, a Venezuelan national.
Her husband, Eduard Caraballo, 27, was in one of the holding cells inside the facility when the fire started and survived by being sprayed with water and pressing himself against a door, Infante said, adding that he saw many bodies lying on the ground. .
Viangly was screaming desperately outside the facility and complaining about the lack of information. “They took him away in an ambulance. They (immigration officials) don’t tell you anything, a family member could die and they don’t tell you ‘he’s dead,’” she complained.
Epicenter
Ciudad Juárez, a neighbor of El Paso, Texas, is one of the border towns where many migrants seeking to cross into the United States to seek refuge remain stranded for a long time.
A recent report from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) indicates that, since 2014, some 7,661 migrants have died or disappeared on their way to the United States, while 988 died due to traveling in subhuman conditions.
The president of the United States, Joe Biden, toughened immigration policy, forcing migrants from Ukraine, Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti to request asylum from the countries through which they transit or to make an appointment online.
These measures were announced at a time when the Democratic president was accused by the Republican opposition of having lost control of the border, with more than 4.5 million people intercepted without papers in that region since he took office.
Source: Ambito
