El Paso, Texas.- Some 25 makeshift tents were intentionally set on fire this week at a migrant camp near the Texas border, according to witnesses, in a sign of the extreme danger of being stranded in Mexico.
The fires broke out on Wednesday and Thursday in a large encampment of about 2,000 people, most from Venezuela and Haiti, in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, a city near Brownsville, Texas. A pro-migrant activist said the makeshift dwellings were doused with gasoline.
People fled when their stores caught fire, said Gladys Cañas, who runs the group Ayudandos A Triunfar. Those affected affirm that they were demanded to leave the place.
The press did not report on deaths or injuries. However, some 25 rudimentary shelters made of plastic, canvas, branches and other materials were set on fire in a sparsely populated part of the camp. Many of the residents apparently also lost clothes, documents and other humble belongings that they had inside.
Margarita, a Mexican who remains in the camp, said Friday that she witnessed migrants from Venezuela screaming during the fire the day before. They had children with them and few belongings.
Criminal groups recently threatened migrants who cross the border river illegally, as well as their guides, according to Margarita, although foreigners continue to do so.
The thugs often abuse migrants in the area, demanding money in exchange for allowing them to pass through their territory.
However, Juan José Rodríguez, general director of the Tamaulipas Institute for Migrants, a state agency that coordinates its work with the Mexican federal government, said he had no information that any gang had caused the fires.
Rodriguez blamed a group of migrants for the fire and pointed out that some 10 precarious dwellings already abandoned were burned.
He added that it appears the migrants set the fires to show their frustration with a US government cell phone application through which they are assigned turns to appear at the border and can request asylum.
Migrants aspire to obtain one of the 740 places available daily through the CBPOne application, which is not without flaws but which helps them to legally enter the United States at an official crossing.
The number of migrants outstrips available places, exacerbating tensions in Mexican border cities that receive migrants, often in shelters and camps like the one in Matamoros, Tamaulipas state, in northeastern Mexico.
