A fire raged for three hours early yesterday in a prison complex at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, killing 11 illegal immigrants and injuring 15 other people, Dutch authorities said.
The identities and nationalities of the dead was not immediately known. Officials declined to res-pond to reports that the fire may have been started 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."
cause unknown
Rob Steenakker, a spokesman for the Dutch border police, said the cause of the fire was still being investigated. Several members of the Dutch parliament called for an independent investigation into whether the prison complex complied with safety standards.
An unknown number of detainees escaped during the blaze and three were arrested.
The fire broke out shortly after midnight and raged until 3am. Firefighters and airport police were among the injured, accor-ding to news reports. Four people were hospitalized for treatment, including one seriously injured prisoner.
"It's terrible if you hear about a fire of such size, eleven people dead," said Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende in a televised interview from London, where he was to attend a EU summit. "Our thoughts are with the families of the victims and the wounded."
guards not serious
A prisoner told the Dutch TV station NOS that guards initially did not take prisoners' warnings of a fire seriously and told them nothing was wrong.
"First they said there was no problem, and they just kept us locked up," said the detainee, who was not identified. "Our throats started hurting. We kicked, we screamed, we rang the [alarm] bell of course. And then panic broke out."
The large prison block is located on the east side of Europe's fourth largest airport and is surrounded by a 3m-high 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, including drug smugglers and failed asylum seekers.
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.
`a warning'
Council of Europe Secretary General Terry Davis said the airport fire and several other recent fires that killed illegal immigrants in France "should serve as a warning of the hazardous sit-uation affecting migrants in many of the Council of Europe member states."
"We must never forget that the bottom line of our migration policies and procedures must be respect for human rights, human dignity and the physical and mental integrity of the persons involved," he said.
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.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique