Dutch ministers to resign over airport fire

The Dutch ministers of justice and housing will resign after an investigation found they were partially to blame for a fire at a jail at Amsterdam’s airport that killed 11 illegal immigrants awaiting deportation, the state broadcaster reported today.

Justice minister Piet Hein Donner and housing minister Sybilla Dekker were to address parliament later in the day to respond to a report released by the blue-ribbon Safety Investigation Council, which came just two months before a general election, said the NOS broadcaster.

The report said the government disregarded safety standards at the jail that contributed to the deaths last October of the illegal immigrants and suspected drug smugglers in the fire, apparently started by a prisoner.

The report could be a costly embarrassment for the conservative government parties as the country prepares for national elections on November 22.

The report said there would have been “fewer or no victims to mourn if the fire security had received (proper) attention from the organisations involved".

The fire in October raised questions about whether the government sacrificed safety standards in its haste to deport immigrants when it ordered the complex’s rapid construction in 2002.

Council chairman Pieter van Vollenhoven declined to respond to questions about criminal liability or negligence. “It’s not up to us to determine guilt", he said. "That would be up to public prosecutors.

The political effect of the report on public opinion also was not immediately clear, since the airport fire has not been a priority issue in the early days of the campaign.

"But the building wasn’t in order, the procedures weren’t in order, people weren’t trained, the cooperation wasn’t good, and as the clincher the care afterward was also substandard,” said Aleid Wolfsen, of the leading opposition party, Labour. “It could hardly be worse.”

“If I listen to the conclusions of the Council, I’m am distressed by their harshness, and I can imagine that the ministers are very much worried about them as well,” said Femke Halsema, of the Green-Left party.

The long-awaited report said the Justice Ministry, the country’s building inspection service and the city of Haarlemmermeer, which has jurisdiction over the airport, “failed on a number of points to adhere to the applicable laws and rules concerning fire safety".

The 310-page report, released alongside a multimedia and video presentation that was nationally broadcast, listed a series of failures, including the lack of training in emergency procedures for the prison guards, faulty smoke and ventilation ducts and problems of access for fire trucks.

The wing of the detention center where the fire broke out fell short of building regulations, it said. Pressure to build cells quickly may have come at the cost of fire security, but that pressure began to mount even before prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende was first elected in 2002, Van Vollenhoven said.

Toekaja Artist, the mother of Robbert Arah, who died in the blaze, demonstrated outside the parliament building as the report was being released.

“Donner must resign. Everyone who was responsible for what happened must go,” she said. “I do not believe people are angry enough about this.”

Janna Kodde, a protester who was unrelated to any of the victims, also called for the three ministers involved in the case to accept responsibility, but she acknowledged that the report may have less of an impact than she hoped.

“There are many people who think refugees should not be locked up, but they keep voting for the parties from the right. So it’s difficult to say if this will be a hot issue for the coming election,” she said.

A prisoner believed to have started the blaze is being prosecuted for arson and manslaughter.

The victims were illegal immigrants or suspected drug smugglers from Suriname, Ukraine, Turkey, Georgia, Dominican Republic, Romania and Bulgaria who were awaiting deportation.

Prosecutors are also investigating two guards at the complex for negligence, and relatives of victims also have launched civil proceedings.

All prison guards involved have denied negligence, as have firefighters, the Justice Ministry, builders, and the city of Haarlemmermeer, which has jurisdiction over Schiphol Airport and is responsible for safety checks.