Monday night was horrific for dozens of migrants who were trapped in a blazing fire at a detention center in Mexico. The fire broke out in the male section of the facility, where 68 men from Central and South America were being housed.
Officials said 39 of them died in the flames, while 29 others were injured and taken to hospitals. The cause of the fire is still unknown, but some witnesses said they heard an explosion before the fire started. Others claimed that some of the migrants tried to escape from the fire but were prevented by the guards.
The detention center is located in Ciudad Juárez, a city near the border that is the last stop for many migrants who plan to cross illegally into the U.S. The facility is run by Mexico’s National Institute of Migration, which said it strongly rejects the “acts” that led to the fire. It did not specify what it thought those acts were.
This is not the first time that a fire has occurred at a migrant facility in Mexico. In 2011, a fire at a shelter in Tijuana killed 14 migrants and injured 37 others.
The Mexican government has been inconsistent in its approach to migrants from other countries who cross through its territory to reach the United States, appearing at times to encourage the illegal traffic and at other times attempting to tamp it down. Though its southern border with Guatemala is merely one-quarter the length of its border to the U.S.–and thus far more defensible–the traffic into and through Mexico continues. As does the loss of life.
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