Radio Erena: 20 November 2014
An Eritrean died and 10 others heavily wounded in an overnight fire erupted at an asylum center in Vernier, Switzerland on Monday 17th November.
According to Erena Radio sources from the town, the Eritrean victim was identified as a 29-year-old man from the town of Adraba, Halib Mentel around 90 kilometers west of Eritrea. He has just made his way to the country through Libya three months ago. The sources confirmed that the remains of the young Eritrean has been kept at a hospital in Geneva.
Although the Eritrean victim was granted asylum, he was assigned to stay at the asylum center which houses immigrants whose cases have been rejected. Swiss police are investigating the cause of the fire although they allege it was intentionally started by some asylum seekers in retaliation to their rejection.
The fire, which some believe has been caused due to a gas leak, has also claimed another person whose nationality hasn’t been identified yet.
Our sources reported a similar incident had happened before.
According to Swiss news media, there are 22,000 Eritrean asylum seekers in the country.
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