FIRE AT A MIGRANT DETENTION FACILITY IN MEXICO KILLED AT LEAST 39, DOZENS INJURED

Tue 28 March 2023:

After a fire broke out in an immigration detention facility in northern Mexico close to the US border, dozens of people were killed and injured.

The fire started late on Monday at a building in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, which is close to El Paso, Texas.

Images from the scene showed ambulances, firefighters, and vans from the morgue around the smoke-covered facility with rows of bodies lying under shimmery silver sheets.

#Comunicado 🗞️| @INAMI_mx lamenta el fallecimiento de 39 personas migrantes extranjeras, derivado de un incendio que se originó poco antes de las 22:00 hrs del lunes en el área de alojamiento de la Estancia Provisional de Cd. Juárez, Chihuahua. https://t.co/NCe0yExH9T pic.twitter.com/vhT9cgXzsq

— INM (@INAMI_mx) March 28, 2023

At least 39 people died in the fire. Twenty-nine injured people were taken to hospitals, said Mexico’s National Immigration Institute in a statement. The facility was holding 68 adult men from Central and South America, it said.

Mexico’s attorney general’s office launched an inquiry and has investigators at the scene, according to media reports.

One of the main entry points for migrants into the United States is Ciudad Juarez. Its shelters are crowded with migrants looking for openings to cross or those who have applied for asylum in the US and are awaiting the outcome of the application process.

The US administration of President Joe Biden has been attempting to stop the record-breaking number of people who are traveling to the US through often dangerous routes arranged by human smugglers.

Every month, about 200,000 people attempt to cross the border from Mexico to the US. Most seek asylum due to poverty and violence in their home countries and are from Central or South America.

According to a recent report by the International Organization for Migration, 988 migrants died in accidents or while traveling in inhumane conditions while 7,661 migrants have died or vanished en route to the US since 2014.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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