Mexico City, Apr 7 (EFE).- The Government of Mexico began this Friday the repatriation of the bodies of migrants who died in a fire at the immigration station in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua on March 27.
“This Friday, April 7, the repatriation of deceased people to their respective countries began with the arrival of the body of a person in Bogotá, Colombia,” the Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC) specified in an information card.
In addition, he added, seven bodies of people from El Salvador are being transferred by land and it is expected that this Saturday they will be crossing the border through the southern state of Chiapas.
Likewise, he specified that of the people from Guatemala who died in the incident, 11 have already been identified and their air transfer is scheduled for next week, as established by the Guatemalan government, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) and the National Institute of Migration (INM).
“In addition, relatives of six deceased Honduran migrants are in the process of identifying the bodies and a flight to their country of origin will be scheduled,” reported the SSPC.
He recalled that the Venezuelan authorities reported that next Tuesday, April 11, personnel specialized in fingerprints will arrive to verify the identification of people.
“In attention to the relatives of the victims, both deceased and hospitalized, there is a specialized group of legal and psychological support, from the Executive Commission for Attention to Victims (CEAV),” he said.
The agency reiterated that “there will be no impunity” in the case and those found responsible “must answer before the law.”
On the night of March 27, a fire at the INM center, on the US-Mexico border, killed 40 migrants, including 6 Hondurans, 7 Salvadorans, 18 Guatemalans, one Colombian, and 7 Venezuelans.
Until this Friday, the federal Ministry of Health reported that in addition to the deceased, the accident left 27 injured, of which 22 remain hospitalized and so far five have been discharged. There were about 70 migrants at the immigration station.
According to Mexican civil organizations, 2022 was the most tragic year for migrants in Mexico, as some 900 died trying to cross without documents from the country to the United States.
The region is experiencing a record migratory flow, with 2.76 million undocumented immigrants detained at the United States border with Mexico in fiscal year 2022.
