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Rights groups have blamed poor conditions and overcrowding for a fire that killed at least 40 migrants from Central and South America at a migrant detention centre in Ciudad Juárez, a Mexican city on the US border.
The fire, which broke out late on Monday, was caused by migrants setting fire to mattresses in protest after discovering they would be deported, Mexico’s president said. “They didn’t think that would cause this terrible tragedy,” Andrés Manuel López Obrador told a news conference. He did not provide more details about how so many died.
Rights groups have frequently flagged concerns about poor conditions and overcrowding in detention centres as the US and Mexico attempt to cope with record levels of border crossings at their shared frontier.
“You could see it coming,” a statement from a group of advocates said. “Mexico’s immigration policy kills.”
“Last night’s events are a horrible example of why organisations have been working to limit or eliminate detention in Mexico,” said Gretchen Kuhner, director of the Mexico-based Institute for Women in Migration, which supports migrant rights.
The Los Angeles Times said a federal Mexican official told its reporters that the migrants were protesting because 68 people had been confined to a cell intended for a maximum of 50 and deprived of drinking water.
UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement that the secretary general called for a “thorough investigation”.
Twenty-eight of the dead were Guatemalans, Guatemala’s national migration institute said, while 13 were from Honduras, according to its deputy foreign minister. It was not immediately clear why those totals differed from the death toll given by Mexican authorities.
In addition to the 40 who died, 28 were hospitalised after being injured, Mexico’s migration institute said. The office of Mexico’s attorney general said it was investigating.
Video surveillance footage appeared to show guards leaving as flames engulfed the centre while smoke filled the cell. A man inside kicked a door that appeared to be locked. On the other side of the bars, three people in what appeared to be official uniforms could be seen walking past but making no attempt to open the door.
The footage was authenticated by a government minister.
The newspaper El Universal said immigration officials had spent the hours before the fire, which broke out at about 10pm on Monday, rounding up Venezuelan migrants who had been begging for money on the streets of Ciudad Juárez, which is just over the US border from El Paso, Texas. Some of those migrants are believed to have been transported to the immigration centre where the fire broke out.
One of those detained men was Orlando Maldonado, a 30-year-old from the Venezuelan city of Guarenas, who was picked up by immigration officials at about 2pm on Monday afternoon and was inside the building when the fire happened. “We don’t know if he’s dead or alive,” said his friend, Julianny Lopez, 23, as she waited outside the detention centre with others for news of their missing loved ones.
“He asked me to not leave him alone. I will never forget his words,” said Maldonado’s 23-year-old sister, Katiuska Marquez, who was also detained but later released because she was caring for a toddler.
José Guadalupe Torres Campos, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Ciudad Juárez, officiated mass on Tuesday afternoon at the city’s cathedral for the victims of the fire, later calling for reform when talking to reporters.
“We have insisted, even the pope has insisted, that the [Mexican] government change its current immigration policies. We need reform that respects migrants,” he said.
He added that everyone, including the church, could be doing more to ease the crisis.
“We’re all responsible, even myself,” he said. “Either by omission, indifference, action, or because we haven’t done the right thing.”
He said the diocese of Juárez would look for ways to improve the support already given to migrants. Several shelters in the city are operated by the church.
A representative of the northern region of the Mexican state of Chihuahua, Oscar Ibáñez Rubio, also called for reform: “It’s fundamental that the federal government changes its immigration policies. We must have better containment measures before immigrants get to this state and find ways to integrate them into society.”
The fire – reportedly one of the deadliest ever to hit an immigration detention centre in Mexico – has highlighted the increasingly tough migration policies that have been put in place by Joe Biden’s administration. Limits on the number of people allowed to seek asylum have left cities along Mexico’s northern border overwhelmed by people wanting to cross into the US, with many forced to sleep on the streets or inside churches or packed shelters.
“As Mexico receives historic numbers of new asylum claims and the US continues to implement policies that push asylum seekers back into Mexico, humanitarian infrastructure in the country is increasingly strained and more people are stuck in highly vulnerable situations,” the International Rescue Committee said in a statement.
“These risks are particularly tangible in cities along the US-Mexico border, such as Ciudad Juárez, which for years have seen increasing numbers of displaced people as new and stricter border policies have been put in place.”
Reuters contributed to this article
English (US)