(CNN Spanish) — The bodies of seven Salvadoran migrants killed in a fire at an immigration facility in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, arrived in El Salvador this Sunday, the country’s foreign ministry said.
The coffins arrived by caravan and overland from the border city of Ciudad Juárez in northern Mexico. Salvadoran officials said the bodies had been handed over to the families of the dead so they could be buried.
The Government of El Salvador has provided guidance and assistance to the next of kin of victims from the departments of Ahuazaban, Sansonate, La Libertad, San Salvador, Saladenango and Morazán.
“I have followed this difficult process closely with the families, and I offer them our full support. I know that just as they are going through this painful moment, our country is hurt by this tragic and reprehensible event,” Cindy Portal said. , Deputy Minister of Migration and Human Mobility of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of El Salvador.
The case of five Salvadorans, who were injured and receiving treatment at various hospitals in Ciudad Juarez, is ongoing, the Foreign Ministry said.
On the night of March 27, a fire broke out at an immigration station in the US border town, killing 40 people and injuring 27 others.
El Salvador considers what happened at Mexico’s National Migration Agency a state crime and has demanded that the perpetrators be punished.
According to the Mexican government, detention has already been ordered against six people in the case: three immigration agents, two from a private security company that ran the center and an immigrant accused of starting the fire. The Attorney General’s Office is investigating.
After the fire, Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador told his morning press conference that the fire was caused by immigrants. According to the president, they were distraught because they would be deported.
“It’s related to the struggle they started, when they knew they were going to be deported and mobilized, they put mattresses from their shelter at the door of the shelter, they set it up. They set fire to them, they didn’t imagine it would cause this terrible misfortune,” said López Obrador.
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