A revealing video of the fire at the migrant center in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, showed the moment when at least three agents of the National Migration Institute (INM) left an area where several people were locked up in a cell as the fire spread.
The audiovisual material shared through social networks corresponds to a recording of the security cameras of the immigration station. The video lasts 32 seconds and shows how a cell remained locked with migrants inside at least during the time of the recording.
The enclosed people approached the door and kicked it as the fire grew larger and larger. Meanwhile, at least three agents walked in front of the cell where the migrants were being held without even turning to look at them.
In the video it is clear that agents left the scene as the smoke became so thick that it even obscured the security camera.
Es criminal. Así dejaron encerrados a los migrantes en la Estación de Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. pic.twitter.com/MwwMGi1cTl
— Joaquín López-Dóriga (@lopezdoriga) March 28, 2023
The fire
The incident occurred on Monday in a building where 68 detained male immigrants from Central and South America were being held. Reports indicate that the fire killed 40 people (as of now) and left 28 seriously injured.
According to the President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), the fire was set by the migrants themselves who were in the center.
"This had to do with a protest that they started, we suppose, when they found out that they were going to be deported, mobilized. As a protest, they put mattresses at the door of the shelter and set them on fire, and they did not imagine that this was going to cause this terrible misfortune," he said.
However, the investigation is still ongoing. According to the president, the migration director is already in Ciudad Juarez to collaborate in the investigation together with the attorney general's office.
