New Delhi: The Kuwait fire tragedy that claimed the lives of 46 Indian blue-collar workers is the latest such incident to happen in foreign labourers’ camps across the Gulf nations.
A Jeddah, Saudi Arabia-based source familiar with labour welfare issues told ETV Bharat that the incident in Kuwait should not come as a surprise given the poor living conditions in labour camps across the Gulf countries.
"Workers are made to live in rooms with multiple bunker beds with little private space,” the source said. “The contractors want to keep accommodation overhead costs down and that is why the foreign workers are compelled to live in such poor living conditions.”
Labour camps in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries typically house foreign workers, mainly from South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Africa. These workers are employed in construction, domestic work, and other low-wage sectors crucial to the region's booming economies. The GCC comprises Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Many labour camps are overcrowded, with workers living in cramped conditions. This overcrowding makes it difficult to evacuate quickly in case of a fire. Poor ventilation and the use of flammable materials in construction increase the risk of fires spreading rapidly.
Faulty wiring and electrical systems are common in labour camps due to substandard maintenance and the use of non-compliant electrical appliances. Overloaded circuits, as multiple workers use electrical devices simultaneously, can lead to short circuits and fires.
This is exactly what happened at the Mangaf building fire in Kuwait that killed 50 foreign workers, including 46 Indians. The investigation team of the fire department announced on Thursday that the fire was caused by an electric short circuit in the room of the building guard and spread to other places, according to the Kuwait Times. The guard’s room is located on the ground floor.
Citing security sources, the report stated that there were 179 workers inside the building when the fire broke out, while 17 were outside. The 196 residents included 175 Indians, 11 Filipinos and the rest from Thailand, Pakistan and Egypt. Apart from faulty wiring and electrical systems, many labour camps lack proper cooking facilities, leading workers to use makeshift arrangements that are unsafe. The use of portable gas stoves and improper handling of cooking appliances can cause fires.
A lack of fire safety training and equipment, such as fire extinguishers and smoke detectors, exacerbates the risk. Workers often lack basic fire safety knowledge, which hampers effective emergency responses.
This is not the first such fire tragedy in Kuwait. A fire in 2018 at a labour camp in Al Ahmadi killed five workers. Overcrowding and lack of fire safety measures were cited as primary factors.
Similar incidents happened in other GCC countries too. In 2012, a fire at a labour camp at the Doha Industrial Area in Qatar killed 11 workers and injured several others. The fire was attributed to an electrical short circuit. In 2020, a fire at another labour camp in Doha resulted in the deaths of several workers.
In 2015, a fire broke out at a labour camp in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, that killed 10 workers and injured dozens more. Investigations revealed that the fire started in the kitchen area due to unsafe cooking practices.
In 2016, a fire at a labour camp in Abu Dhabi in UAE killed two workers and injured several others. The fire was caused by a malfunctioning air conditioning unit. Dubai in the UAE has also seen several fire incidents in labour camps, often linked to electrical faults and poor living conditions.
"If you will notice, most of the fire accidents in the labour camps usually happen after midnight or in the wee hours of the morning," the Jedddah-based source explained. "People usually die because of smoke inhalation and suffocation."
The fire at the Kuwait labour camp this week broke out at 4 am. This brings up the question as to why Indian blue-collar workers in the GCC nations are subjected to such tragedies.
International human rights organisations and labour rights groups have exerted pressure on GCC countries to improve conditions for foreign workers. The FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar brought significant international scrutiny, leading to some improvements in labour camp safety and worker rights.
The Indian blue-collar workers in the GCC countries often come from impoverished backgrounds and are the primary breadwinners for their families. The loss of life or severe injury leaves families in dire financial straits.
Indian blue-collar workers are preferred in the GCC nations as well as other impoverished Arab nations like Yemen, Sudan and Egypt as the citizens of such countries do not want to work in harsh climate conditions. Indian workers are known for their hard and quality work. They are apolitical and law-abiding citizens. They work for competitive wages.
The migration of Indian workers to the Gulf dates back several decades, driven by the economic opportunities in the oil-rich GCC states. This migration peaked in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, with millions of Indians working in various capacities across the region.
However, many of these workers become victims of illegal recruitment agents. Though India has proper systems in place to ensure minimum wage limits for overseas workers and proper living conditions, illegal recruitment agents usually try to subvert the system. For example, workers are taken to countries like Sri Lanka and Nepal on tourist visas from where they are taken to the Gulf countries on work visas. That way, the illegal recruiting agents and the contractors in the countries involved can subvert the Indian system. Many of these contractors in the Gulf countries are actually Indians. In the Kuwait incident too, the building is rented by the NBTC group, reportedly owned by Malayali businessman KG Abraham.
This is where India's office of the Protector General of Emigrants (PGoE) comes into play. The PGoE was originally under the Ministry of Labour. However, after the UPA government came to power in 2004, the PGoE's office was brought under the newly created Ministry Non-Resident Indians’ Affairs, later renamed as the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA). After the MOIA was merged with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in 2017, the office of the PGoE came under the ambit of the MEA.
"There exists a robust regulatory line-up in India to ensure safety and wellbeing of Indian workers abroad and for enforcement of contractual obligations by overseas employers," R Dayakar, former Indian Ambassador to Iraq and Jordan, who also served in the West Asia desk of the MEA, told ETV Bharat. "However their implementation may be flawed, particularly because of the role of supervisory functionaries. This aspect seems to call for a systemic reevaluation and reappraisal of relevant public policy."
Dayakar said that ever since the PGoE's office was taken under the MOIA and then the MEA, the Ministry of Labour ceased to have a locus standi on overseas Indian workers.
"Labour matters form the core functions of the Ministry of Labour unlike in the MEA where a while cross-section of bilateral, global and regional issues cluster the table along with diaspora matters, including issues of overseas Indian workers," he said.
"While there is no doubt that the MEA provides a crucial interface with the Gulf governments and Indian missions have to perform critical functions on labour welfare, the top-level supervision is best done by the Ministry of Labour. It seems there is a need for amending the Allocation of Business Rules of the Central Government to restore PGoE to the Ministry of Labour."
Meanwhile, on a better note, the source in Jeddah said that local authorities in countries like Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait have started taking steps to ensure better living and accommodation conditions for foreign blue-collar workers.
