Families of migrants who died in Mexican detention center fire to receive millions

Ciudad Juárez, Mexico - The families of 40 people who died in a fire at a detention center for undocumented migrants in a Mexican border town in March will receive more than $8 million each, the government said Sunday.

A shire dedicated to the victims of the Ciudad Juárez detention center fire, whose families will receive more than $8 million each in compensation.
A shire dedicated to the victims of the Ciudad Juárez detention center fire, whose families will receive more than $8 million each in compensation.  © HERIKA MARTINEZ / AFP

According to Mexican authorities, the fire in Ciudad Juárez, on the border with El Paso, Texas, started when a migrant set fire to the mattress in his cell, where he was being held with 67 other men, to protest his possible deportation.

Security camera footage showed that neither immigration officials nor security personnel attempted to evacuate the migrants once the fire broke out. Five officials were arrested in the aftermath of the tragedy.

The National Institute of Migration (INM) said Sunday it had requested the finance ministry provide a "special budget item for the reparation of the damage".

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The amount approved was 140 million pesos for each of the victims, equivalent to about $8.2 million, the INM said.

A total of 39 migrants died at the scene, most of them from asphyxiation, and one more in hospital. In addition, 27 suffered injuries.

The dead included 19 Guatemalans, seven Salvadorans, seven Venezuelans, six Hondurans, and one Colombian, with the INM saying all bodies had now been repatriated.

Cover photo: HERIKA MARTINEZ / AFP

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