Several people died in an overnight fire at an immigration detention center in a Mexican city on the US border, local media reported Tuesday.
An Agence France-Presse journalist saw firemen and rescuers place several bodies covered with blankets in the parking lot of the National Migration Institute (INM) facility in Ciudad Juarez.
Jose Luis Gonzalez / Reuters
INM press staff reached by AFP declined to specify the death toll.
Local media, citing unnamed sources, estimated there were dozens of deaths. Reuters news agency, citing two sources with the local government, said at least 10 people had lost their lives, with volunteer rescuers putting the toll at 37, with many more injured.
The Associated Press reported that the Diario de Juarez newspaper also said 37 people had died. The paper cited unnamed sources in the Chihuahua state prosecutor’s office.
A rescuer who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the press told AFP about 70 migrants, most of whom were Venezuelans.
Reuters says most of the dead are Venezuelans.
The fire broke out shortly before midnight, prompting the mobilization of firefighters and dozens of ambulances.
Jose Luis Gonzalez / Reuters
Ciudad Juarez, whose neighbor is El Paso, Texas, is one of the border cities where many undocumented immigrants seeking asylum in the United States are stranded.
A recent report by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) states that since 2014, some 7,661 migrants have died or gone missing en route to the United States, and 988 have died in accidents or while traveling in inhumane conditions.
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