Near the Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez’s border with the United States, a fire that started at a facility used to house migrants resulted in at least 38 fatalities and numerous injuries.
The blaze, which happened on Monday, was the latest in a string of deadly mishaps for migrants and was one of the deadliest in the nation in recent years.
What happened at the facility?
According to Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, some individuals set fire to mattresses at around 9:30pm (03:30 GMT) on Tuesday after learning they would be deported.
Several media sources aired surveillance footage that was verified by the government’s interior minister, Adan Augusto Lopez, and which appeared to show guards at the detention facility leaving as a cell with people trapped inside was engulfed in flames.
Where were the victims from?
According to Mexican officials, those killed and hurt came from Guatemala, Honduras, Venezuela, El Salvador, Colombia, and Ecuador.
According to reports from Mario Bucaro, the foreign minister of Guatemala, 28 of his country’s citizens were slain.
Why were people kept there?
With Ciudad Juarez serving as a key crossing point, the individuals who perished on Monday are among the thousands of people from South and Central America who make perilous journeys to the US in quest of safety.
Each month, 200,000 individuals attempt to pass the border from Mexico to the US.
A lot of them claim they have no option but to attempt to reach the US because they are fleeing gang violence, systemic poverty, and other socioeconomic issues in their home countries.
Deterrence has remained a central tenet of US President Joe Biden’s administration’s approach to migration, despite his campaign pledge to roll back some of his predecessor Donald Trump’s most draconian immigration policies.
What has been the reaction?
According to media reports, the attorney general’s office in Mexico opened an investigation while investigators were on the site.
The events of Monday, according to Gretchen Kuhner, director of the Institute for Women in Migration in Mexico, are “a terrible example of why organizations have been working to limit or eliminate detention in Mexico,” she said.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres requested a “thorough investigation into this tragic event,” according to UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
El Salvador denounced the detention center staff’s behavior on Tuesday and called for a thorough inquiry.
Source – Aljazeera
