Fire in Mexico kills 38: Video shows trapped migrants

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 fire to their mattresses. Officers ran into an adjoining room instead of opening the door as flames and black smoke spread.

Interior Minister Adán López confirmed on Tuesday (local time) that the video was genuine. 30 other migrants were injured in the blaze, the INM said. The Public Prosecution Service has launched an investigation.

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 accident scene chanting “Justice, Justice”.

According to immigration authorities, 68 adult males from Central and South America were staying at the property 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,” the president said.

According to media reports, the migrants had been detained the day before at several border crossings in Ciudad Juárez without valid residence papers. They had been taken to the migrants’ shelter to be later deported to their home countries. According to the Attorney General’s Office, the dead and wounded included men from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Venezuela, Ecuador and Colombia.

The human rights organization Amnesty International (AI) criticized the deadly blaze as a result of the inhumane immigration policies of the Mexican and US governments. “How is it possible that the Mexican authorities locked up people who could not escape the fire?” asks Erika Guevara Rosas, regional director of Amnesty International. The United Nations in Mexico also deplored 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 take to prevent such incidents,” the ministry 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 homeland. Between October 2021 and October 2022, the US Border Protection Agency recorded 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 also finding their way. (sda/dpa)