Mass breakout: 1,300 Cubans escape from immigration centre in Mexico
- Escape came on the same day the country’s top human rights official toured the facility to check conditions, which detainees say are poor
At least 1,300 mainly Cuban immigrants have fled on foot from a detention centre on Mexico’s southern border in the largest mass escape in recent memory and a fresh sign of how a surge in arrivals has stretched the country’s resources to the limit.
The National Immigration Institute said late on Thursday that 700 of the Cubans returned voluntarily to the Siglo XXI facility in the border city of Tapachula in Chiapas state, but 600 were still on the loose.
Mexican newspaper Reforma reported that Haitians and Central Americans were also among those who fled the facility, which has been crammed with people.
The institute said agents inside the compound weren’t armed and there was no confrontation.
Federal police with riot shields later streamed into the compound to control the situation, as a crowd of angry Cubans whose relatives were being held at the facility gathered outside.