After a fire that killed 38 people in a facility for arrested migrants in northern Mexico, criticism of the responsible authorities was voiced. Video from a CCTV surveillance camera at the Immigration Services Collection Center (INM) in the city of Ciudad Juárez showed several men in a locked room with bars as migrants set their mattresses on fire. Officers ran into an adjoining room instead of opening the door as flames and black smoke spread. Interior Minister Adán López confirmed on Tuesday that the video was real. 30 other migrants were injured in the fire, the INM said. The Attorney General’s Office launched an investigation.
The authorities assumed that the migrants had just learned that they were about to be deported or transferred to another location. They set fire to their mattresses in protest, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said at a press conference. The fire got out of control. On Tuesday, migrants gathered in front of the scene of the accident and chanted “Justice, Justice”.
According to the immigration authorities, 68 adult men from Central and South America were staying in the accommodation at the time of the accident on Tuesday night (local time). 15 women were rescued shortly after the fire broke out. “It is very sad that something like this is happening,” said the President.
According to media reports, the migrants had been picked up the day before at various border crossings in Ciudad Juárez without valid residence papers. They had been taken to the migrants’ shelter to later be deported to their home countries. According to the attorney general’s office, men from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Venezuela, Ecuador and Colombia were among the dead and injured.
The human rights organization Amnesty International (AI) criticized the deadly fire as the result of the inhumane immigration policies of the governments of Mexico and the USA. “How is it possible that the Mexican authorities locked up people who had no way of escaping the fire?” asked Amnesty International’s Regional Director, Erika Guevara Rosas. The United Nations in Mexico also regretted the tragedy and called for a thorough investigation.
The US Embassy in Mexico was concerned. “Building a system for safe, orderly and humane immigration is a shared responsibility that governments, international organizations and society must shoulder to prevent incidents like these,” it said in a statement.
Mexico is on the migratory route of people trying to reach the US. They are fleeing poverty, violence and political crises in their home countries. Between October 2021 and October 2022, the US Border Protection Agency registered more than two million attempts by migrants to enter the United States. In addition to migrants from Central America, more and more people from Venezuela, Haiti and Cuba are making their way.
