Anjali Sharma
GG News Bureau
UNITED NATIONS, 29th March. UN head Antonio Guterres on Tuesday called for a full investigation into the circumstances surrounded the deaths of 39 migrants in a fire at a processing centre on the border between Mexico and the United States, in a statement issued by UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric in New York.
According to local officials the blaze at the migrant centre was run by Mexico’s National Migration Institute in Ciudad Juarez, began at a protest against imminent deportations on Monday night.
The institute reported that there were 68 adult men in total staying at the facility.
According to news reports said that most of the victims are believed to be Venezuelans, Guatemalans and other Central American nationals.
Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, said in a televised news conference, that migrants had set their own mattresses alight, anticipated that they were to be expelled unaware of the tragic consequences of their protest.
The city located right on the border across from El Paso, Texas, has seen an influx in migrants hoping to reach the US ahead of the anticipated end of the so-called Title 42 COVID-era restrictions, which authorizes the expulsion of migrants on emergency health grounds.
UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric, said the Mr. António Guterres was “deeply saddened” by the deaths, and wished a speedy recovery to those injured, in a statement issued in New York.
He added that the Secretary-General was calling for “a thorough investigation into this tragic event, and of course we all reiterate our commitment to work with the authorities of countries where mixed movements of people occur, to establish safer, more regulated, and more organized migration routes.”
On how the UN could intervene to make conditions on the Mexico-US border safer for desperate migrants, Mr. Dujarric said that Member States needed to live up to the commitments they have made, as signatories to the UN-led Global Compact for Migration.
He added “What we have now, broadly, are criminal gangs, basically managing global migration, with the horrific results that we see every day.”
