39 dead in fire at Mexico migrant centre near US border
Mexico City (AP): A fire in a dormitory at a Mexican immigration detention centre near the US border left more than three dozen migrants dead, a government agency said Tuesday, in one of the deadliest incidents ever at an immigration lockup in the country.
Hours after the fire broke out late Monday, rows of bodies were laid out under shimmery silver sheets outside the facility in Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas. Ambulances, firefighters and vans from the morgue swarmed the scene.
Thirty-nine people died and 29 were injured and are in "delicate-serious" condition, according to the National Immigration Institute.
There were 68 men from Central and South America held in the facility at the time of the fire, the agency said.
It was the deadliest incident inside a Mexican immigration facility in recent memory. Authorities are investigating the cause of the fire and the governmental National Human Rights Commission had been called in to help the migrants.
The agency said that it "energetically rejects the actions that led to this tragedy" without any further explanation of what those actions might have been.
The country's immigration lockups have seen protests and riots from time to time.
Mostly Venezuelan migrants rioted inside an immigration centre in Tijuana in October that had to be controlled by police and National Guard troops. In November, dozens of migrants rioted in Mexico's largest detention centre in the southern city of Tapachula near the border with Guatemala. No one died in either incident.
Ciudad Juarez is a major crossing point for migrants entering the United States. Its shelters are full of people waiting for opportunities to cross or who have requested asylum in the US and are waiting out the process.
In recent years, as Mexico has stepped up efforts to stem the flow migration to the US border under pressure from the American government, its National Immigration Institute has struggled with overcrowding in its facilities.
The high level of frustration among migrants stuck in Ciudad Juarez was on display earlier this month when hundreds of mostly Venezuelan migrants acting on false rumours that the United States would allow them to enter the country tried to force their way across one of the international bridges to El Paso. US authorities blocked their attempts. (AP)
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Man accused in criminal case arrested at Mangaluru Airport upon arrival from abroad
Mangaluru (Karnataka) (PTI): A man who had been absconding abroad for nearly two years in connection with a criminal case registered against him was arrested at Mangaluru International Airport upon his return to the country, police said on Wednesday.
The accused was identified as Ibrahim Batees, a resident of Bantwal taluk, they said.
He was wanted in a case registered against him in 2019 under Sections 427 (mischief causing damage), 504 (intentional insult), 394 (voluntarily causing hurt in committing robbery), and 341 (wrongful restraint) of the IPC, along with Section 2(A) of the Prevention of Destruction and Loss of Property Act at Vitla police station, police said.
The accused had failed to appear before the court for trial proceedings and had been evading arrest by staying overseas, they said.
According to police, acting on specific information about his arrival from Middle East country, personnel from Vitla police station, with the assistance of the immigration authorities at Mangaluru International Airport, detained him soon after he landed here on Tuesday.
He was arrested and produced before the jurisdictional court, which remanded him to judicial custody until March 7, 2026, they said.
Further investigation into the case is underway.
