Kuwait Building Fire Live Updates: After Kochi, special IAF aircraft carrying mortal remains of blaze victims lands in Delhi

The death of 46 Indian workers in a fire in Kuwait is a reminder of the dismal working conditions of a large, and often ignored, section of the Indian diaspora. The labour camp that was gutted on Wednesday was reportedly packed beyond capacity. The rapid spread of the blaze and the high number of casualties indicate that the six-storey building did not have adequate safety provisions, such as fire exits and fire-fighting equipment. The Kuwait government has ordered an investigation and assured that the guilty will be held to account.

The country’s deputy prime minister has asked the Kuwait Municipality and the Public Authority of Manpower to address similar violations elsewhere, where a large number of workers are crowded into residential buildings. India’s Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh has reached the Gulf nation to ensure early repatriation of mortal remains and speedy medical assistance to the injured. But the Centre and state governments must do much more — they should use the growing goodwill for India in the West Asian countries to guarantee the well-being of the migrant labour force.

According to the Ministry of External Affairs data, nearly 8.8 million Indians live and work in the Gulf. The money they send back home makes for more than a fourth of the diaspora’s annual remittances. In Kuwait, Indian carpenters, masons, electricians, construction site labourers, factory and domestic workers and food delivery agents constitute nearly a fifth of the country’s workforce. Several studies and reports have shown that they are vulnerable to exploitation by employers.

Two years ago, for instance, an investigation by this newspaper underlined the precarity of the lives of Indian workers employed in the construction of soccer stadiums in Qatar.

While the significantly high salaries in the Gulf continue to make countries in the region a favoured employment destination, at the same time, the availability of a large number of unskilled and semi-skilled workers and footloose labourers reduces the bargaining capacity of the migrants. Many are recruited through the visa sponsorship, or kafala system, which binds workers to their employers, severely limiting the capacity of the migrants to seek better housing or occupational safety improvements. Fear of loss of employment or deportment prevents most from complaining about the quality of working or living conditions. Read our editorial

Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh who visited Kuwait and met officials there on Thursday, is present at Cochin International Airport. Singh paid his last respects to those killed in the fire. In a video shared by news agency PTI, Singh said Kuwait officials assured him of such an incident never happening again. He said, "Our embassy staff there (Kuwait) is constantly monitoring all the injured people in the hospital. We went there yesterday, visited every single person who was admitted in the five hospitals.

I am happy to tell you that by God's grace most of them will be discharged in two-three days. The hospital authorities are taking exceptionally good care of them. We met the minister for interior of Kuwait, and he assured that this kind of an incident will never happen again. They are very sensitive about it, concerned about it. The Kuwaiti authorities are very sad about the incident, and they have ensured us that they will take all steps so that these kinds of unfortunate incidents are not repeated again."

“What happened in Kuwait is a tragic incident. Our party expresses its complete solidarity with the affected families,” says CPI leader D Raja.

The mortal remains of those killed in Kuwait building fire are kept at Cochin International Airport for Ministers, officials and people to pay their last respects. Ambulances and police force have been readied for carrying the bodies to respective native places. Out of 46 Indians, 23 people from Kerala were killed in the fire.

The mortal remains of 46 Indian victims are being taken out of the IAF aircraft.

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Offering condolence, Kerala Chief Minister said, "This is a grave tragedy that hit our country. About 50 people have been killed in the incident. It is the most grim tragedy in the lives of NRIs."

Ambulances with police escort will transport the bodies to the native places of the victims, who hail from various parts of Kerala.

The blaze in the seven-storey building that housed 196 migrant workers in Mangaf, south of Kuwait City, on Wednesday killed 49 people and injured around 50 others. A preliminary probe has indicated glaring lapses – there were around two dozen gas cylinders on the ground floor of the building; inflammable materials were used as partitions to separate the workers in the cramped rooms; the doors to the rooftop were locked, etc.