What began as a protest to avoid deportation that would make them return to poverty in their countries of origin, ended this Tuesday with the killing of 39 undocumented migrants – including a Colombian – in a transit center on the border between Mexico and the United States.
The tragedy, which also has another 29 people with serious injuries, was recorded at the facilities of the National Institute of Migration (INM) -in Ciudad Juárez-, when inside there were 68 men, all of legal age from Central and South America, pending whether or not they could continue their journey north.
“This had to do with a protest that they started, from, we assume, that they found out that they were going to be deported, mobilized,” said President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
And he added, maintaining the thesis that it was the fault of the migrants, that everything originated “as a protest at the door of the shelter, where they put mats and set them on fire; They did not imagine that this was going to cause this terrible misfortune.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, the deceased are: 1 Colombian; 1 Ecuadorian; 12 Salvadorans; 28 Guatemalans; 13 Hondurans; and 12 Venezuelans. But at the close of this edition, the nationalities of the injured were missing.
The investigation of the case was assumed, precisely, by the Attorney General’s Office and the National Institute of Migration (INM). The latter said that the injured were transferred to four hospitals, where their condition is serious and they must be kept under observation.
“Communication and coordination was established with consular authorities from different countries to implement actions that allow the full identification of deceased migrants,” added the institute.
The fire in the detention center, unprecedented in this type of facility, started in the area where foreigners without papers are housed.
An AFP journalist observed the moment in which lifeguards removed the bodies to put them in the parking area of the immigration center before being removed by forensic personnel.
Reports from the press and witnesses indicate that firefighters and dozens of ambulances from Ciudad Juárez – on the border with El Paso (Texas) in the United States – mobilized to attend to the emergency that occurred in a place where in recent days the presence of illegal migrants given the impossibility of continuing to the United States.
Viangly, a Venezuelan, screamed desperately from outside the facility, where her 27-year-old husband was taken after being detained despite having the documents to remain in Mexico.
The young woman knew that her husband was among the victims of the fire, but did not know the state of his health: “They took him away in an ambulance. They (immigration officials) don’t tell you anything, a relative could die and they don’t tell you if he’s dead.”
That of this couple is the case of hundreds of migrants who, fed up with waiting – most of them Venezuelans – tried to stampede across an international bridge on March 13, but US agents prevented their advance.
According to Mexican civil organizations, 2022 was the most tragic year for migrants in Mexico, as some 900 died trying to cross without documents from that country to the United States.
In addition, the region is experiencing a record migratory flow, with 2.76 million undocumented immigrants detained on the US-Mexico border, according to records for fiscal year 2022.
But, according to a recent report by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), since 2014 some 7,661 migrants have died or disappeared on their way to the United States, while another 988 died from traveling in subhuman conditions.
For this reason, the president of the United States, Joe Biden, toughened immigration policy, forcing migrants from Ukraine, Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti to request asylum before entering their territory.
In this sense, the United States ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, warned on Tuesday that the fire in the migrant center is a “reminder” of “the risks of irregular migration.”
“It is a reminder to the governments of the region about the importance of fixing a broken migration system, and of the risks of irregular migration,” Salazar said.
Even in this same context, the Government of Mexico has faced harsh criticism from human rights organizations for accepting US policies and deploying more than 20,000 uniformed members of the Armed Forces at the borders for migratory tasks.
They identify a dead Colombian
The Foreign Ministry confirmed that a Colombian is part of the 39 migrants who lost their lives in the fire. It would be Julián David Villamil Arévalo, a 22-year-old young man. “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs deeply regrets this tragedy, expresses its most sincere condolences to the family and friends and wishes for the speedy recovery of the injured.”