Kathmandu: At least 38 people have died at a migrant processing centre in Mexico in a fire that officials say started during a protest against deportations.
Many of the victims had travelled from Central and South America trying to get to the US, as reported by BBC.
The blaze at the facility in Ciudad Juárez broke out shortly before 22:00 local time (04:00 GMT) on Monday.
The city, located across the Rio Grande river from El Paso, Texas, has seen an influx of people in recent weeks.
Many have been heading to the US border in expectation of an end to Title 42, a pandemic-era policy which gives the US government the power to quickly expel migrants trying to cross its border.
Mexico’s National Migration Institute (INM) lowered the death toll to 38 from 40, saying a visit to hospitals where victims were being treated had confirmed the lower number.
Local media say the migrants inside the building where the blaze happened had been picked up by the authorities on Monday and taken to the centre. The facility is located near the Stanton-Lerdo Bridge, which links Mexico and the US.
Twenty-nine people were also injured in the blaze. Some 68 men from Central and South America were inside the centre – which is run by the INM – when the fire happened.
A statement from US Customs and Border Protection said they were “prepared to receive and process those who were injured in the fire and are being transported via ambulance from Mexican to US medical facilities for treatment”.
Mexican authorities said the dead and injured included people from Guatemala, Honduras, Venezuela, El Salvador, Colombia and Ecuador.
Twenty-eight Guatemalan citizens were killed in the fire, the country’s foreign minister Mario Bucaro told reporters.
(News Source: BBC)