The Mexican government awarded the families of nearly 40 victims who perished in a fire at a holding facility near the U.S. border in March $8 million each on Sunday, officials announced.
In what was called “one of the deadliest incidents” at an immigration facility in Mexico, thirty-nine people were killed and more than two dozen injured when a fire broke out overnight at a holding facility in the border city of Ciudad Juarez across from El Paso, Texas. (RELATED: Nearly 40 Dead After Fire At Migrant Facility In Mexico)
The families of 40 people who died in a fire at a detention center for undocumented migrants in a Mexican border town in March will receive more than $8 million each.
https://t.co/X3dXKIOtel— CBS News (@CBSNews) August 14, 2023
The fatal incident occurred when a migrant, who was protesting his possible deportation, set fire to a mattress in his cell that housed 67 others. After the fire broke out, neither immigration officials nor security personnel at the facility seemed to work to evacuate the inmates, security footage revealed, according to a report from CBS News in March.
As such, the National Institute of Migration (INM) announced Sunday it had asked the finance ministry in Mexico to provide a “special budget item for the reparation of the damage,” according to another report from CBS News. The finance ministry reportedly approved a total of 140 million pesos (an equivalent of $8.2 million) for each of the families affected by the fire, the outlet stated.
Most of the 39 victims died at the scene after suffering from asphyxiation. The migrants hailed mostly from the Central American countries of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. Seven victims came from the South American country of Venezuela while one another was from Columbia. Their bodies have since been repatriated, INM announced, according to CBS News.