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Thursday 27 October 2005, 11:57 Makka Time, 8:57 GMT
One detainee said initial warnings had been ignored
A fire in a prison complex at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport has killed 11 illegal immigrants and injured 15 other people, authorities have said.
The identities and nationalities of the dead were not immediately known.
Officials declined to respond to reports that the fire, which burned for several hours, might have been set by one of the prisoners and that the cells were unsafe.
"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."
An unknown number of detainees escaped during the fire that broke out on Wednesday shortly after midnight and raged until 0300 (0100GMT).
Firefighters and airport police were among the injured, according to the news reports. Four people were hospitalized for treatment.
Warnings ignored
"We are still busy trying to confirm their identities"
Martin Bruinsma,
Immigration Service spokesman
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.
The detention block is located on the east side of Schiphol airport and is surrounded by a three-metre fence and barbed wire.
The sprawling prefabricated buildings were set up in 2002 and are used to detain people who arrive by plane and have been refused entry to the Netherlands - among them drug smugglers and failed asylum seekers.
Immigration policy flayed
Prisoners were taken to other
facilities after the fire broke out
About 350 prisoners were being held in the complex when the fire broke out. Uninjured prisoners were taken to other facilities in nearby cities or moved elsewhere within the complex, Dutch media reported.
Helicopters were called in during the fire to track down possible escaped detainees.
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.
---------------------------------
from BBC
Detainees killed in Dutch blaze
Officials say the emergency services acted quickly
At least 11 people have died, and 15 are in hospital, after a three-hour
blaze in a detention centre at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport. The blaze broke out
soon after midnight in the centre, which houses illegal immigrants and drug
smugglers awaiting deportation from the Netherlands.
Some of the 350 prisoners at the centre said guards were slow to respond to
their cries for help.
Police said they were looking for some detainees who may have escaped.
Witnesses described flames licking from the windows of the prefabricated
complex, which is sited only yards from one of the runways on the east side of the
airport.
Our throats started hurting. We kicked, we screamed, we rang the bell of
course. And then panic broke out
Detainee
Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said: "It's terrible if you hear
about a fire of such size, 11 people dead.
"Our thoughts are with the families of the victims and the wounded."
Warnings 'ignored'
The cause of the blaze is still unknown.
"The 11 who died were detainees," said local Mayor Michel Bezuijen, but their
nationalities and identities were not released.
He said an independent inquiry would be set up, as well as the regular
judicial inquiry, while a European prisoners' rights group said it would also
investigate.
MPs said they wanted an inquest to look at safety issues.
Forty-three people were said to be in the wing that caught fire, where two
dozen cells held up to two people each.
There were some firefighters and police among the injured.
One detainee at the centre told Dutch radio that guards had initially ignored
their warnings of a fire and their banging on the cell doors.
"We remained locked inside. We were shouting at the top of our voices until
we were hoarse," he said.
Speaking on Dutch television, a detainee described the growing panic.
"First they said there was no problem, and they just kept us locked up," he
said.
"Our throats started hurting. We kicked, we screamed, we rang the bell of
course. And then panic broke out."
A spokesman for the prosecutors' office, Martin Bruinsma, told AFP news
agency the emergency services had acted "very quickly", but that cell doors could
only be opened manually, one at a time.
The Dutch National Refugee Council criticised conditions at the centre,
particularly the lack of an automatic system to open cell doors.
Escape
Some of the detainees have been transferred to other detention centres in the
Netherlands.
Helicopters were being used to search for several who are believed to have
escaped from the centre. Police said three were arrested trying to escape.
The complex is used for people arriving by plane who are refused entry to the
Netherlands.
Hundreds of cocaine smugglers, mostly from the Netherlands Antilles and other
parts of the Caribbean, are detained at the airport every year, along with
illegal immigrants awaiting deportation.
The Netherlands has one of the toughest immigration policies in Europe, and
is in the process of deporting 26,000 asylum seekers who have been refused the
right to stay.
Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk, visiting the site on Thursday, said: "It's
awful. I offer my condolences to the families."
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FROM OTHER NEWS SITES:
Washington Post* 11 Killed in Amsterdam Fire - 1 hr ago
Xinhua News Agency 11 detainees killed in Dutch airport blaze - 2 hrs ago Reuters Eleven killed in Amsterdam jail fire - 5 hrs ago CBS News Dutch Airport Fire Kills 11 Immigrants - 6 hrs ago Sky News Dutch Airport Fire Kills 11 Prisoners Full Story - 9 hrs ago About these results
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U.S. USING CHEMICAL WEAPONS IN IRAQ
RAI News 24
U.S. Used Chemical Weapons In Iraq
Veteran admits: Bodies melted away before us.
White phosphorous used on the civilian populace: This is how the US"took" Fallujah. New napalm formula also used.
11/07/05 "La Repubblica" -- -- ROME. In soldier slang they callit Willy Pete. The technical name is white phosphorus. In theory its purpose is to illumine enemy positions in the dark. In practice, it was used as a chemical weapon in the rebel stronghold of Fallujah. And it was used not only against enemy combatants and guerrillas, but again innocent civilians. The Americans are responsible for a massacre using unconventional weapons, the identical charge for which Saddam Hussein stands accused. An investigation by RAI News 24, the all-news Italian satellite television channel, has pulled the veil from one of the most carefully concealed mysteries from the front in the entire US military campaign in Iraq.
A US veteran of the Iraq war told RAI New correspondent Sigfrido Ranucci this: I received the order use caution because we had used white phosphorus on Fallujah. In military slag it is called 'Willy Pete'.Phosphorus burns the human body on contact--it even melts it right down to the bone.
RAI News 24's investigative story, Fallujah, The Concealed Massacre, will be broadcast tomorrow on RAI-3 and will contain not only eye-witness accounts by US military personnel but those from Fallujah residents. Arain of fire descended on the city. People who were exposed to those multi colored substance began to burn. We found people with bizarre wounds-their bodies burned but their clothes intact, relates Mohamad Tareq al-Deraji, a biologist and Fallujah resident.
I gathered accounts of the use of phosphorus and napalm from a few Fallujah refugees whom I met before being kidnapped, says Manifesto reporter Giuliana Sgrena, who was kidnapped in Fallujah last February, ina recorded interview. I wanted to get the story out, but my kidnappers would not permit it.
In the investigative story, produced by Maurizio Torrealta, dramatic footage is shown revealing the effects of the bombardment on civilians,women and children, some of whom were surprised in their sleep.
The investigation will also broadcast documentary proof of the use in Iraq of a new napalm formula called MK77. The use of the incendiary substance on civilians is forbidden by a 1980 UN treaty. The use ofchemical weapons is forbidden by a treaty which the US signed in1997
Fallujah. La strage nascosta [Fallujah, The Concealed Massacre] will beshown on RAI News tomorrow November 8th at 07:35 (via HOT BIRDTMstatellite, Sky Channel 506 and RAI-3), and rebroadcast by HOT BIRDTMsatellite and Sky Channel 506 at 17:00 [5 pm] and over the next twodays.
