Thirty-nine (39) migrants died in a fire at an immigration facility in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. It left 29 others injured. The incident is reportedly one of the deadliest ever at the immigration lockup. It stands just across the border from El Paso, Texas.
Ambulances, morgue vans and firefighters were on the scene. Rows of bodies lay under silver sheets in the smoke-covered building. Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador says the migrants started the fire themselves. However, authorities are still investigating the cause.
No concrete explanation was given for the blaze. But a statement from the Instituto Nacional de Migración informa revealed it “energetically rejects the acts” that caused the fire. However, the group did not explain what those ‘acts’ were.
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US Ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar offered his condolences to the families of the migrant victims who are feeling the pain from the loss. In a tweet, Salazar says that the fire is a reminder to governments in Mexico to fix the “broken immigration system”.
Nos unimos al dolor de los familiares de personas migrantes que perdieron la vida y de lesionados en incendio en Ciudad Juárez. Es un recordatorio a los gobiernos de la región de la importancia de componer un sistema de migración quebrado y los riesgos de la migración irregular.
— Embajador Ken Salazar (@USAmbMex) March 28, 2023
Tensions between migrants and authorities have apparently been running high in recent weeks, where shelters crammed with people wait for the chance to cross into the US. Or they already requested asylum there, and are waiting out the process. Largely Venezuelan asylum seekers protested inside an immigration centre in Tijuana in October. This was suppressed by the police and National Guard troops.
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Reports from the Mexican press suggest that the large number of the victims were Venezuelan migrants. Millions of whom fled from their economically-devastated country in recent years. All in search of a better life.
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