Shocking images of fire at Mexico migrant center in which 38 people have died
The Mexican government on Tuesday corrected the number of people killed in the fire to 38. migrants killed by fire which occurred Monday around midnight at a National Migration Institute (INM) facility in Mexico in Ciudad Juarez, on the border with the United States, and put the number of wounded at 28.
Images of the horrible event have come to light and have gone viral on Twitter, where journalist Joaquín López-Dóriga has described what happened as “criminal.” Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López ObradorThe incident occurred at 21.30 hours (04.30 GMT) on Tuesday in Ciudad Juarez, on the border with the U.S. city of El Paso, Texas, where there was an initial death toll of 37 people, most of them from Central America and Venezuela. López Obrador blamed a migrant protest for the fire..
“This had to do with a protest that they started, from, we suppose, when they found out that they were going to be deported, mobilized, and as a protest, at the door of the shelter they put mattresses and set fire to them,” he stated.
The president “informed that the fire was caused by a protest and that the director of the INM (Francisco Garduño) and the FGR (Attorney General’s Office) are already investigating to determine responsibilities”, according to government spokesman Jesús Ramírez Cuevas.
Prior to the incident, the INM agents had carried out an operation to remove migrants begging for alms from the streets.. The presence of migrants in the area has intensified this year since the United States announced new measures, including the immediate deportation of migrants from Haiti, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba arriving by land under Title 42.
The Mexican government has also faced criticism from human rights organizations for accepting U.S. policies and deploying more than 20,000 elements of the Armed Forces to the borders for immigration duties.
According to Mexican civil organizations, 2022 was the most tragic year for migrants in Mexico, as some 900 died in the attempt to cross without documents from the country to the United States. The region is experiencing a record migration flow, with 2.76 million undocumented migrants apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal year 2022.
