Several migrants died early Tuesday in a fire at a detention center in Ciudad Juárez (north), a Mexican city bordering the United States, local media reported.
An AFP journalist saw firefighters and rescuers transport several bodies under blankets in the parking lot of the National Institute for Migration (INM) near the border.
Reached by phone from AFP, INM confirmed the fire but refused to provide details of the victims. According to local media, citing unidentified official sources, dozens of people are believed to have died.
A rescuer, who asked for anonymity because he was not allowed to speak, said around 70 migrants, mostly Venezuelans, were at the scene.
Vinagly, a Venezuelan, screams in desperation outside the center where her 27-year-old husband was taken after his arrest. “They took him in an ambulance,” she says. She doesn’t know about her condition and complains that the center’s officials “are not saying anything.”
The fire broke out just before midnight Monday, prompting the mobilization of firefighters and dozens of ambulances early Tuesday morning.
Ciudad Juarez, adjacent to El Paso, Texas, is one of the border cities from which many undocumented migrants attempt to cross to the United States to seek asylum.
Around 7,661 migrants have died or disappeared en route to the United States since 2014, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).