MEXICO’S top immigration official will face criminal charges over a fire that killed 40 migrants in Ciudad Juarez last month.

Federal prosecutors said on Tuesday that Francisco Garduno, the head of Mexico’s National Immigration Institute, should have prevented the disaster despite earlier indications of problems at his agency’s detention centres.

This comes after repeated calls from within Mexico, and from some Central American nations, not to stop the case at the five low-level officials, guards and a Venezuelan migrant already facing homicide charges in the case.

Anger initially focused on two guards who were seen fleeing the March 27 fire, without unlocking the cell door to allow the migrants to escape.

But President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said earlier on Tuesday that the guards did not have the keys.

The attorney general’s office said that several other officers of Mr Garduno’s agency will also face charges for failing to carry out their duties, but prosecutors did not explain what specific charges or identify the officials.

Prosecutors said that the case showed a “pattern of irresponsibility.”

The press office of the immigration agency that Mr Garduno heads has made no comment on the charges.

There have long been complaints about corruption and bad conditions at Mexico’s migrant detention facilities.

A video from a security camera inside the facility shows guards walking away when the fire started in late March inside the cell holding migrants.

The guards are seen hurrying away as smoke fills the facility, and they did not appear to make any effort to release the migrants.

Three Mexican immigration officials, a guard and a Venezuelan migrant are being held for investigation in connection with the fire. They face homicide charges.

The migrant allegedly set fire to foam mattresses at the detention centre to protest what he apparently thought were plans to move or deport the migrants.