“There is a fire, but the employees lock the door and leave” “immigrant set fire” workshop
Central and South America flock to the Biden administration to ‘eliminate forced deportation’
Tens of thousands of people in a facility that can accommodate 3,000 people… “This tragedy is a crime once morest humanity”
Withered flowers are planted in a memorial to the victims of a fire that killed at least 38 people on the 28th (local time) at an migrant detention center in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. AP Yonhap News
At least 38 people were killed and 29 others injured when a fire broke out at an immigrant detention center in a Mexican border town that is the gateway to the United States on the 28th (local time). At the time of the fire disaster, suspicions were raised that the prison staff left the scene with the door locked, but the Mexican government claimed that “arson by migrants” was the cause. The notion of responsibility for immigration policies in Mexico as well as in the United States is growing.
According to local media El Universal, etc., the place where the fire broke out is an immigrant accommodation facility in Ciudad Juarez, which is adjacent to El Paso, USA. The Mexican Immigration Agency said 68 male immigrants from Guatemala, Honduras, Venezuela and El Salvador were detained in the facility at the time of the fire.
Suspicion was raised that the fire caused massive casualties because the staff left the facility with the door locked at the time of the disaster. Closed circuit (CC) TV recorded video secured by local media showed two Immigration Office employees moving somewhere with flames behind them over the iron bars. Immigrants can also be seen kicking the door from the inside. The damage seems to have increased as the only escape route was virtually blocked. Representative Jorge Alvarez Maines, a member of the opposition civic movement, who participated in a protest held in front of the site of the disaster that day to condemn the government’s responsibility, said, “Immigrants have been sacrificed due to the negligence of the government and the Immigration Office.” I am sure,” he said.
However, the government is reducing responsibility, saying that “arson by immigrants” was the cause. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said at a press conference that “immigrants knowing they would be deported[to their country]and protesting once morest it set fire to mattresses and it was reported that the fire had started.” Members of the National Reconstruction Movement, the ruling party, also refuted, saying, “The current immigration law (deporting immigrants back to their home country) was passed and implemented under the leadership of the opposition party,” and urged not to drag the tragedy into political strife.
The US government is also responsible for the cause of this disaster. At the Mexican border, immigrants heading to the United States are flocking to the United States in the hope that the US administration of Joe Biden will lift the’Title 42′, an immigrant deportation system. Title 42 was introduced during the former administration of Donald Trump in the name of preventing the spread of Corona 19. At the time of his inauguration, President Biden announced that he would abolish the border policy introduced under Trump, but Title 42, which was scheduled to end at the end of last year, is still maintained.
Because of this, immigrants who have come with expectations for the Biden administration are overcrowded in various facilities in Mexico without being able to cross the border. According to the Mexican Human Rights Commission, tens of thousands of migrants are currently being held in facilities that can accommodate 3,000 people. On the other hand, the New York Times reported that the number of immigrants in detention facilities on the US side has decreased significantly.
Mexico is faced with the burden of providing shelter and food to tens of thousands of migrants, and human rights groups have expressed concern over deteriorating conditions in detention facilities as people flock to the country. According to estimates by the United Nations Office for Migration, the number of migrants in Ciudad Juárez, where the fire broke out, has surged to 12,000, far exceeding the city’s capacity. Immigrants are sleeping in churches and on the streets. Hundreds of them reportedly wanted to cross over to El Paso earlier this month, but were reportedly refused.
“This tragedy is a crime once morest humanity,” said a Venezuelan migrant living in Ciudad Juárez. “There is no respect for human dignity here. It is a prison,” he said. “The United States, along with the Mexican government, is directly responsible for what happened to these Mexican migrants,” said Rachel Schmidtke, senior advisor for Latin America at the International Refugee Agency.
