The blaze broke out in a one-story wooden building in the Istra district, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) to the west of Moscow, where a large group of Tajik migrant workers was living.
"A baby aged about four months died," a police representative said.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union many people from the Central Asian states have come to Moscow and its outskirts in search of employment. They usually find unskilled jobs, often work illegally and have to live in poor conditions. The leaderships of some Central Asian nations have urged the Russian authorities to improve their citizens' working conditions and honor their rights on Russian territory.
In a similar incident in February, a fire at a Moscow construction site claimed the lives of eight workers from Central Asia.
