Mexican migration officer absent as deadly fire began in cell he supervised, guard says

FILE PHOTO: An aerial view shows the building of the National Institute of Migration during a vigil in memory of the victims of a fire that broke out late on Monday at a migrant detention center, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, March 28, 2023. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (Reuters) - The migration officer supervising the men's unit of a Mexican migrant detention center where a fire claimed 39 lives had left the building shortly before the incident, a private security guard said in an interview with Reuters.

Angelica Hinojosa, a security guard at the center, said government migration officers are in charge of keys to the locked cells at the site in the northern city of Ciudad Juarez, providing important new insight into how the blaze, one of the worst migrant tragedies in Mexico, became so deadly.