Mexico’s deadly fire a sign to rethink migrant detention centers, Red Cross says

The fire that led to the deaths of 40 people in a migrant detention center in northern Mexico marks a “good moment” to consider alternatives to depriving migrants of their freedom, a senior Red Cross regional officer said.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said the detainees had been unable to escape because the person in charge of the key to the cell was not
there when the fire began. The incident is one of the deadliest migrant tragedies in years.
“Depriving migrants of their liberty for being migrants should be a last resort,” said Olivier Dubois, head of Mexico and Central America for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Wednesday, adding alternatives to incarceration should be expanded.
Dubois spoke to Reuters ahead of a Thursday presentation of its annual report, which found that through 2022 and the beginning of 2023, migrants from South America and the Caribbean in transit through Mexico outnumbered those from Central America.