Statement from Scalabrinian Missionaries present in Australia and Asia, following the fire at the Ciudad Juarez Migrant Detention Center in Mexico.
The Scalabrinian Missionaries present in Australia and Asia join their confreres of the St. John the Baptist Province present in Central America, Mexico, the United States and Canada, the Scalabrinian Network of Migrant Homes (RedCMS) and the families of the victims to denounce all those who, actively or passively, allowed the death of 39 people and the injury of 29 others in the fire set at the Ciudad Juarez Migrant Detention Center in Mexico, on the border with El Paso, Texas, on the night of March 27, 2023.
All of the victims are men, 18 years of age or older, most of them Guatemalan nationals, either deported to Mexico from the United States and awaiting repatriation, or arrested by Migration Police at street intersections when they were begging for handouts to survive.
The migrants’ protest is to challenge a migration policy that is exclusively policing and designed for mere repression without offering real possibilities of a new life to these migrants.
In fact, what is being denounced is the blatant instrumentalization of migrants who, after days, weeks or months of detention in the U.S., are deported to one of the many border points with Mexico. Then, after being sent back across the border, they are taken over by IMN (Mexico’s National Migration Institute) agents and confined to one of the migrant centers that spring up in all the major border cities (such as Ciudad Juárez). Here begins a second detention that will end only on board a plane with which one will be repatriated. In these centers one stays for an indefinite period of time. And this is also where people end up who are stopped directly in Mexican territory, often left without water which seems to have been the trigger for Monday night’s uprising.
We reproduce in full the statement of the Scalabrinians who were present at the sites of the tragedy.
As Scalabrinians, we are committed to serving migrants, refugees, and seafarers around the world, and this tragedy underscores the urgent need for greater support and protection for these vulnerable communities. We stand in solidarity with all those who have been affected by this terrible event and offer our unwavering prayer and support.
