Mexico: Eight guards and officials are perhaps facing murder charges after a fire at a Mexican migrant detention facility in the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez claimed the lives of 39 imprisoned migrants.

Ms. Sara Irene Herrerias, a prosecutor specialising in human rights, stated that an inquiry had been begun “for the crime of homicide and damage to property,” though other potential charges will also be taken into consideration.

According to witnesses and a survivor, dozens of detainees were locked in cells during the incident. The deceased were all men, and the Mexican government is under pressure to determine how they perished after officials claimed that the center’s female inmates had been safely evacuated. Security Minister Ms. Rosa Icela Rodriguez cited during a news conference that five employees of a private security company, two federal officers, a state immigration officer, and others may have been involved in the fatalities.

A brief video that appeared to be security footage from inside the centre during the fire and was shared on social media showed guys kicking on the bars of a barred door as their cell filled with smoke. Three uniformed men pass without even attempting to open the door.

Ms. Rodriguez stated that emergency procedures and the private security firm’s level of training would be investigated. Officials think that migrants who learned they would be deported set mattresses on fire as a form of protest, which is how the fire, which killed largely males from Guatemala and other Central American nations, began.

According to a group member who was on the scene but asked to remain anonymous, Rescue Team Ciudad Juarez, a private paramedic service, observed men in military gear removing people from the men’s unit when they arrived at the facility at 10:05 PM.

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