Mexican judge orders 5 arrested for homicide in migrant fire

A judge has ordered three Mexican immigration officials, a private security guard, and a Venezuelan migrant be held for investigation in connection with a fire at an immigration detention centre in northern Mexico that killed 40 migrants and refugees.

The four people responsible for security at the Ciudad Juarez facility will be held on charges of homicide by omission and causing injuries, while the migrant who allegedly set the fire faces charges of homicide and causing injuries, Mexico’s Federal Judiciary Council said after Tuesday’s hearing.A video from a security camera inside the facility shows guards walking away when the fire started last Monday inside the cell holding migrants and refugees and not making any attempt to release them.

It was not clear whether those guards had keys to the cell doors. More than two dozen migrants and refugees were seriously injured in the fire.