Amsterdam airport fire kills 11 (AP) Updated: 2005-10-27 20:00
A fire roared through a prison complex at Amsterdam's
Schiphol Airport on Thursday, killing 11 illegal immigrants awaiting deportation
and injuring 15 other people, authorities said.
Firefighters rest against a fence as a bus
carrying inmates prepares to leave from a prison facility at Schiphol
airport, Amsterdam, Netherlands, Thursday Oct. 27, 2005, after a fire
broke out which claimed the lives of at least eleven illegal immigrants
and wounded fifteen other people. The identities and nationalities of the
dead was not immediately known. Officials declined to respond to reports
that the fire may have been set by one of the prisoners. An unknown number
of detainees escaped during the fire. [AP] |
The nationalities of the dead were not immediately known.
"They were illegal aliens waiting to be extradited to their countries of
origin," said Immigration Service spokesman Martin Bruinsma. "We are still busy
trying to confirm their identities."
The prison block on the east side of Europe's fourth largest airport is
surrounded by a 10-foot fence and barbed wire. Set up in 2002, it is used to
detain people who arrive by plane and have been refused entry to the
Netherlands, including drug smugglers and failed asylum seekers.
An unknown number of detainees escaped during the fire.
The fire broke out shortly after midnight and raged until 3 a.m. Firefighters
and airport police were among the injured, according to the news reports. Four
people were hospitalized for treatment.
A prisoner told the Dutch television station NOS that guards initially did
not take prisoners' warnings of a fire seriously and told them nothing was
wrong.
"They didn't open the door. They kept us locked up. Our throats started
hurting. We were kicking and screaming," said the detainee, who was not
identified.
About 350 prisoners were being held in the complex when the fire broke out.
Some 43 were in the wing that caught fire. Prisoners were taken to other
facilities in nearby cities or moved elsewhere within the complex, Dutch media
reported.
The Netherlands, which has adopted one of the toughest immigration policies
in Europe, is in the process of deporting some 26,000 asylum seekers who have
been refused Dutch residency. Rights groups have criticized the policy, saying
people have been deported to countries where they could face persecution or
abuse.
Hundreds of cocaine smugglers, mostly from the Caribbean and Curacao, are
detained at the airport every year, as are immigrants caught trying to enter the
country illegally. Prison cell capacity was greatly expanded in
2002.
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