CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico: At least 39 migrants from Central and South America died after a fire broke out late on Monday at a migrant facility in the Mexican northern border city of Ciudad Juarez, the government’s National Migration Institute (INM) said on Tuesday.
In a statement, the INM said there were 68 adult men from Central and South America staying at the facility in the city opposite El Paso, Texas, and that 29 of them were also injured in the blaze and taken to four hospitals in the area.
A Reuters witness saw bodies lined up in body bags and confirmed that the fire, whose origins are under investigation, had been extinguished. Many of the migrants at the facility were Venezuelan, according to the witness.
The fire, one of the deadliest to hit the country in years, occurred as the US and Mexico are battling to cope with record levels of border crossings at their shared frontier.
Recent weeks have seen a build-up of migrants in Mexican border cities as authorities attempt to process asylum requests using a new US government app known as CBP One.
Many migrants feel the process is taking too long and earlier this month hundreds of mostly Venezuelan migrants got into a scuffle with US officials at the border after their frustration welled up about securing asylum appointments.
BORDER FLOWS
In January, the Biden administration said it would expand Trump-era restrictions to rapidly expel Cuban, Nicaraguan and Haitian migrants caught illegally crossing the US-Mexico border in an effort to contain the border flows.
At the same time, the United States said it would allow up to 30,000 people from those three countries plus Venezuela to enter the country by air each month.
The blaze in Ciudad Juarez is one of the deadliest incidents to afflict migrants in Mexico in the past few decades.
In December 2021, at least 55 people were killed and the dozens were injured when a truck packed with migrants flipped over in the southern border state of Chiapas.
Seventy-two migrants were massacred by drug cartel gunmen in the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas in 2010.
Forty-nine children died following a blaze in a daycare center in the northern city of Hermosillo in 2009.
RECORD TIME
The administration of US President Joe Biden has been hoping to stem the record tide of migrants and asylum seekers undertaking often dangerous journeys organised by human smugglers to get to the United States.
Biden proposed new restrictions on asylum seekers in February, hoping to stifle the rush of migrants to the southern border when Covid-related controls are lifted.
The new rules say migrants who arrive at the border and simply cross into the United States will no longer be eligible for asylum. Instead, they must first apply for asylum in one of the countries they pass through to get to the US border or apply online via a US government app.
The new measures came as Biden was facing accusations from Republicans of having lost control of the border.
— Agencies
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