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.