emergencies
Mexico is investigating four suspects after fire
People mourn in front of a collection point for arrested migrants, where several people died in a fire. photo
© David Peinado/dpa
Mourning for the fatalities in Ciudad Juárez is great. Now the public prosecutor’s office wants to investigate the fire in the migration authority: four arrest warrants are to be applied for soon.
After a serious fire that killed 39 people at a collection point for arrested migrants in northern Mexico, the Attorney General’s Office has launched investigations into four suspects.
The arrest warrants for three security forces and a migrant would soon be applied for, Human Rights Prosecutor Sara Herrerías said on Wednesday evening. The migrant is said to have set mattresses on fire, starting the devastating fire. The officials, in turn, would not have provided any help.
When the fire broke out at the National Migration Agency (INM) facility in the city of Ciudad Juárez, surveillance camera footage showed security forces running away instead of letting the migrants out of a locked room. The guards being investigated are two INM officials and an employee of a private security company, Herrerías said.
Another 27 people injured
A further 27 people were injured in the fire at the facility for detained migrants at the US border on Monday evening. 16 of them were in serious condition, according to Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez. Eight guards have been identified as allegedly not following emergency response protocols. “Instead of saving lives, they were unable to open a door,” said the security minister.
According to the immigration authorities, the victims were migrants from Central and South America who had previously been picked up by the authorities on the streets of Ciudad Juárez and held at the collection point. They were reportedly awaiting deportation to their home countries or transfer to a collection point in southern Mexico, far from the US border.