A Mexican National Guard officer gives food to migrants outside the immigration detention center where 39 migrants died during a fire in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state, Mexico. AFP
Mexico City: Authorities in Mexico have started the process of repatriating the bodies of the 40 migrants who died in a deadly fire at a detention centre located in the Mexican city of Juarez.
The body of one such victim has already arrived in Colombia. Seven more bodies of migrants from El Salvador are expected to arrive in the Central American country on Saturday, Mexico’s security ministry said in a statement. The bodies will be transported via road.
While bodies of 11 Guatemalan migrants will be flown out next week. The statement added that relatives of some of the Honduran migrants are identifying the bodies of the victims. Special teams from Venezuela will be dispatched in due time to facilitate relatives to identify the victims with the help of fingerprints.
The fire at the Mexican detention centre left as many as 39 people from different nationalities dead last month. Among the dead migrants, 8 were from Guatemala, seven from El Salvador, another seven from Venezuela, six were Hondurans and one was Colombian.
Mexico investigates fire at detention centre
Soon after the fire broke out, Mexican authorities investigated eight employees for possible misconduct at a migrant detention centre where a fire killed 39 detained men.
Mexican officials blamed the deaths largely on private, subcontracted security guards at the detention centre in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas. A video, that was circulated on social media, showed guards hurrying away from the smoky fire apparently without trying to free detainees.
Five of those under investigation for possible misconduct are private security guards, two are federal immigration agents and one is a Chihuahua state officer, federal Public Safety Secretary Rosa Icela Rodr?guez said.
‘No impunity’ for deaths
Mexican president Andres Lopez Obrador vowed there would be “no impunity” over the deaths of 39 migrants in a fire at a detention centre.
“We will not hide anything and there will be no impunity,” President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told reporters.
Those found to have been responsible for “causing this painful tragedy will be punished in conformity with the law,” he added.
With inputs from agencies
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