Gavin Grey: UK correspondent on the investigations into the deadly North Macedonia nightclub fire

North Macedonian officials are probing for corruption after at least 59 teens and young adults died in a nightclub fire. 

Inside fireworks struck the ceiling - engulfing it in flames and prompting a stampede of about 1500 people trying to exit from the only door. 

More than 155 were injured. 

UK correspondent Gavin Grey says investigations are still ongoing - but arrests have been made.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Kevin Gray are UK correspondent with US given Good Evening, HI,
that now tell us about this nightclub fire in North Macedonia,
that many people have died.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Ran it's a terrible, terrible incident and at least fifty
nine have died, Eighteen people are in hospital critical and
many others were left injured. It was thought that nearly
five hundred people gathered for a concert by a group
called DNK. They're a popular hip hop dura in the country.
And during this fire in the North Macedonian club, which

(00:36):
was roughly a couple of one hundred kilometers east of
the capitol, they set off some pyrotechnics during the concert.
The pyrotechnics produced sparks. One of them hit the ceiling
and it turned out the ceiling was made of a
highly flammable substance and it spread really really quickly, and
many of those crushed trying to get out. And it

(00:57):
now appears that we've had up to fifteen people detained overnight.
And this is all about the fact that there are
some suspicions the venue did not have a legal license
to operate, that it only had one sort of exit
for people to get out of the venue's back door
was locked and could not be used. It was described
as an improvised nightclub, having previously been a carpet warehouse.

(01:20):
So lots of things now being revealed about, quite simply
the lack of facilities that are being alleged at this
place and the lack of safety standards that were in place,
and that's led to huge question marks now for the
government about how many of these entertainment areas in North
Macedonia are being used that simply aren't suitable for large gathering.

(01:42):
So questions being asked, arrests being made, and plenty of
people grieving the loss of their loved ones. Incidently, the
age range of those who died is fourteen to twenty four.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
That's terrible, Kevin, that's really terrible. Thank you for updating
us on that. Let's go to the UK. Some asylum seekers,
in fact tens of thousands of them, they've had their
initial claims rejected, but now they're going back for more.
Is that right?

Speaker 2 (02:09):
Yeah? And the people who have had their asylum claims
refused are appealing, and it's the number of appealance or
appellance I guess who are those that we're talking about?
And it's gone to forty two thousand, with almost forty
thousand housed in hotels waiting, and of course that hotel

(02:31):
bill is massive, and people that aren't able to get
a home or on a waiting list for a home
aren't furious. As you can understand that this is happening.
The Refugee Council says the number now is a fivefold
increase in the last two years, and they say the
government simply risks moving the asylum crisis from one part
of the system to another. In other words, this government

(02:53):
has pledged to hear the cases sooner and then determine
whether somebody can stay and then repatriate them if they can't.
But what's happening is they aren't quickening up the system
for those appeal hearings, so we're stuck in this system
where millions of pounds a day is being spent. It
was estimated, incidentally, the cost of hotels could be roughly

(03:16):
three and a half billion New Zealand dollars this year
for housing assylum seekers. And as you can imagine, that
is a bill at the moment where many people are
struggling to put food on the table and heat their homes.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
That is not good figure, absolutely not. Now the puts
Harry business that all of US files, as immigration files,
are we going to get just to have a little
peak of those.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
Well, we're going to have a look, I think at
redacted versions. So all this relates to the fact that
in America, if you apply for citizenship or for basically
living there, you have to answer a series of questions,
and some of them relate to drug taking, and in
the past people have been barred from entering if they've

(03:58):
taken drugs. Well, in his book Spare, Prince Harry said
that he quote, cocaine didn't do anything for me. Marijuana
is different. That actually really did help me. So a
group which is a conservative US think tank called the
Heritage Foundation said that they thought this should mean, if

(04:19):
it's true in the book, that he was disqualified from
obtaining a US visa, and they have won the latest
round in ordering the release of the application form. But
as I said, I think what we'll see is quite
heavily redacted. That this could be bad news for Prince Harry.
In the past, various judges have said no, it's of
no public interest at all, so we're not going to

(04:40):
release it. But Finally they found a judge that said, yes,
actually this is important and we do need it to
be a level playing field for those that come to
live in this country. And so, although President Trump ruled
out deporting Harry from the US back in February, he
actually said to the New York Post, I'll leaving Malone.
He's got enough problem with his wife. She's terrible. We

(05:02):
will wait to see what happens next.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
Goodness make one must be careful when speaking one's truth.
Thank you very much, Kevin. Kevin Gray are UK correspondent.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
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