At least 39 dead in fire at migrant facility in Mexico's Ciudad Juarez

[March 28, 2023]  CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (Reuters) -At least 39 migrants died after a fire broke out late on Monday at a migrant facility in the Mexican northern border city of Ciudad Juarez, the government's National Migration Institute (INM) said on Tuesday. 

Viangly, a Venezuelan migrant, reacts outside an ambulance for her injured husband Eduard Caraballo while Mexican authorities and firefighters remove injured migrants, mostly Venezuelans, from inside the National Migration Institute (INM) building during a fire, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico March 27, 2023. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez

In a statement, the INM said there were 68 adult men from Central and South America staying at the facility and that 29 of them were also injured in the blaze and taken to four hospitals in the area.

A Reuters witness saw bodies lined up in body bags and confirmed that the fire, whose origins are under investigation, had been extinguished. Many of the migrants at the facility were Venezuelan, according to the Reuters witness.

The fire, one of the deadliest to hit the country in years, occurred as the U.S. and Mexico are battling to cope with record levels of border crossings at their shared frontier.

(Reporting by Jose Luis Gonzalez in Ciudad Juarez; Additional reporting by Lizbeth Diaz and Dave Graham in Mexico City; Editing by Anthony Esposito and Sharon Singleton)

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