The spokeswoman for the Guatemalan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Karla Samayoa, said that the Mexican authorities had informed them that “it appears that 28 of the migrants who died in the fire were of Guatemalan origin. Yesterday they had interviewed them to return them”.
Mexico City, March 28 (However).- The Guatemalan Institute of Migration reported this Tuesday morning that among the 39 muertos who left the fire last night in a migrant shelter located in Juarez City, Chihuahuathey find each other 28 Guatemalans.
“So far they are confirmed 28 Guatemalans among the victimsso the Guatemalan Institute of Migrationrespecting the established processes and protocols, will be waiting for the information that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs transfers in a timely manner, in order to provide support and accompaniment of families“, advertisement.
In a statement shared through their social networks, the immigration authorities of the Central American country regretted the events that took place in the border city of Mexico and expressed their solidarity with the families of the victims of the “fire registered in an accommodation area of the Provisional Stay of City Juarez Chihuahua”.
“Irregular migration carries with it a series of risks, which have once again become evident; once again calling on the population to analyze and make the right decisions before embarking on the trip, which often has no return or final destination,” they concluded.
# Announcement | The Guatemalan Institute of Migration reports: pic.twitter.com/vUJJAjMn8n
– Guatemala Migration (@MigrationGuate) March 28, 2023
Previously, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador confirmed that 39 people died from the fire that broke out last night in a migrant detention center in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua.
“I want to report something very unfortunate, very sad. Last night, around 9:30 p.m., a fire broke out in a migrant shelter on the border, in Ciudad Juárez, and so far we have a report that 39 migrants lost their lives,” he said at the beginning of his Press conference.
According to the president, “this had to do with a protest that they [los migrantes] They began to leave, we suppose, when they found out that they were going to be deported, mobilized. And as a protest, they put mattresses from the shelter at the door of the shelter and set them on fire, and they did not imagine that this was going to cause this terrible misfortune”.
“The director of Migration is there, of course all the authorities that have to do with these events and of course the Attorney General’s Office to proceed legally,” he explained.
From the National Palace, López Obrador explained that so far it is known that “migrants from Central America and some from Venezuela” were staying in that shelter.
“We still do not know exactly the names and nationality of those who unfortunately lost their lives. Very sad that this happens, ”she lamented in his intervention.
At dawn, the National Institute of Migration (INM) reported that the incident that occurred in the border city had left a balance of 39 dead and 29 injured.
Images of the place showed rows of bodies under emergency blankets in front of the compound. Ambulances, firefighters and morgue vans were also visible.
# Announcement 🗞️| @INAMI_mx regrets the death of 39 foreign migrants, derived from a fire that started shortly before 10:00 p.m. on Monday in the accommodation area of the Provisional Stay in Cd. Juárez, Chihuahua. https://t.co/NCe0yExH9T pic.twitter.com/vhT9cgXzsq
— INM (@INAMI_mx) March 28, 2023
The fire started on Monday night in a facility of the Mexican migration agency next to the border with El Paso, in a dormitory area where “68 men of legal age from Central and South America were staying,” it added in a statement.
The injured were transferred “in delicate-serious condition to four local hospitals for immediate care.”
The authorities were then investigating the cause of the fire and called the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), an official entity, to attend to the migrants.
In addition, they began working with consular officials from various countries to identify the deceased.
“The National Institute of Migration strongly rejects the acts that led to this tragedy,” the note added, without clarifying at the time what actions it was referring to.
Later, the agency announced that its Commissioner, Francisco Garduño Yañez, visited “local hospitals to verify the health status of migrants hospitalized after the fire in the INM Provisional Stay.”
Migrant detention centers have been the scene of occasional protests and riots, especially at times of high migration flows and when detention facilities are more crowded. However, an incident as deadly as the one on Monday night was not remembered.
According to the website of the NGO “Sin fronteras”, which monitors Mexican immigration facilities, those in Ciudad Juárez have a capacity for 60 people.
In October, Venezuelan migrants rioted inside a Tijuana migration center that had to be controlled by police and National Guard (GN) troops. In November, a similar situation occurred in the Tapachula detention center, near the border with Guatemala. There were no fatalities in either of those two incidents.
Ciudad Juárez is an important transit point for migrants arriving in the United States. Its shelters are full of migrants waiting for opportunities to cross or who have applied for asylum in the United States and are waiting for their case to be processed.
At the beginning of March, more than 30 civil organizations and migrant shelters issued a statement in which they denounced the growing criminalization of foreigners in the city, as well as the existence of “arbitrary detentions where municipal agents question the immigration status of people , they extort them, tear up documentation and steal money and other belongings.”
The tension of those waiting in that town was felt just over two weeks ago when a group encouraged by false rumors that it could cross into the United States attempted to cross en masse over the border bridge and was blocked by the US authorities.
KEN SALAZAR ASKS TO COMPOSE “BROKE IMMIGRATION SYSTEM”
Ken Salazar, United States Ambassador to Mexico, considered this morning that the fire at the shelter “is a reminder to the governments of the region of the importance of fixing a broken migration system and the risks of irregular migration.”
“We join the pain of the relatives of migrants who lost their lives and those injured in a fire in Ciudad Juárez. It is a reminder to governments in the region of the importance of fixing a broken migration system and the risks of irregular migration,” she wrote on his Twitter account.
CHIHUAHUA ANNOUNCES SUPPORT FOR VICTIMS
We deeply regret what happened at the National Migration Institute in Ciudad Juárez, we continue to help in the investigation of the events and we will continue to provide updates as they occur. pic.twitter.com/eaN82Yv5Zv
– Chihuahua Government (@GobiernoEdoChih) March 28, 2023
Subsequently, the Government of Chihuahua, headed by María Eugenia Campos Galván, announced that “it has provided all the required and necessary support from the outset to care for the victims and/or relatives” of the fire at the INM facilities.
Through a statement, he stated that joint work is already being carried out between the State Coordination of Civil Protection, the INM, Municipal Civil Protection, the Criminal Investigation Agency (AIC), the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic (FGR), the Secretariat State Public Security, the Municipal Public Security Secretariat, among others.
“The investigation of the facts is the responsibility of the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic and the State Attorney General’s Office will assist in everything that is needed,” he clarified.
Finally, the Chihuahuan administration reiterated its support to care for the injured people, as well as to collaborate in the corresponding investigation.
The commissioner of @INAMI_mx, @fgymexicovisits local hospitals to verify the health status of migrants hospitalized after the fire at the INM Provisional Stay in Ciudad Juárez, #Chihuahua. pic.twitter.com/l0ZUIJjgAo
— INM (@INAMI_mx) March 28, 2023
-With information from AP
