The tragedy occurred on Monday night in Ciudad Juárez (north), on the border with the United States, the Mexican government reported.
At least 39 migrants died and 29 more were injured in the fire at a detention center in Mexico’s Ciudad Juárez (northern Mexico), on the border with the United States, the Mexican government reported early Tuesday morning. The incident, unprecedented in this type of facility, originated on Monday night, when there were 68 men inside, all of whom were of legal age from Central and South America.
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“The National Institute of Migration (INM) of the Ministry of the Interior regrets the death -so far- of 39 foreign migrants, derived from a fire,” a statement detailed. The 29 injured were taken to four hospitals, where their condition is serious, the agency added.
“Communication and coordination was established with consular authorities from different countries to implement actions that allow the full identification of deceased migrants,” added the INM. The fire started in the area where foreigners without papers are housed. “The INM strongly rejects the acts that led to this tragedy,” he adds.
An AFP journalist verified the moment in which lifeguards removed the bodies to put them in the parking area of the immigration center before being removed by forensic personnel. The accident at this center, located near the border, caused the mobilization of firefighters and dozens of ambulances. The place remained guarded during the early hours of the morning by the military and national guards.
Numerous migrants have been transferred to this migration center in recent days following local authorities removed street vendors, many of them foreigners.
There were regarding 70 migrants, most of them Venezuelans.
Vinagly, a Venezuelan, screamed desperately outside the immigration center, where her 27-year-old husband was taken following being detained in a raid despite the fact that, she says, she has documents to remain in Mexico.
He was affected by the fire, but does not know his state of health. “They took him away in an ambulance. They [oficiales migratorios] They don’t tell you anything, a relative might die and they don’t tell you ‘he’s dead,’” the woman claimed with a broken voice.
A rescue worker who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to testify explained that there were regarding 70 migrants, mostly Venezuelans, at the scene.
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Ciudad Juárez, a neighbor of El Paso, Texas, is one of the border towns where many undocumented foreigners who seek to cross into the United States to seek refuge remain stranded.
Fed up with waiting, hundreds of migrants, most of them Venezuelans, tried to stampede across an international bridge on March 13, but US agents prevented them from passing.
A recent report from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) indicates that, since 2014, some 7,661 migrants have died or disappeared en route to the United States since 2014 and 988 have died in accidents or from traveling in subhuman conditions.
US President Joe Biden proposed last February new restrictions on asylum for migrants arriving across the border with Mexico, and that would force them to request it in countries through which they transit or through online appointments.
These measures are announced at a time when the Democratic president is 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.
