An Air Force flight has brought back the bodies of 45 workers who were killed in a fire in Kuwait.
The fire broke out on Wednesday at a residential building in Mangaf City where 176 Indian workers lived.
Two-thirds of the Kuwaiti population comprises foreign workers and the country is highly dependent on migrant labor, especially in the construction and domestic sectors.
Kuwaiti authorities said 50 people were killed in the fire, including 45 from India and three from the Philippines. Two bodies are yet to be identified.
“It is an unfortunate incident…Our Foreign Minister spoke to the Foreign Minister of Kuwait, we met the Foreign Minister and Health Minister there, they cooperated with us a lot. We met the injured in the hospital, and most of the people will be discharged in 1-2 days, one person is serious and is admitted to ICU,” Union minister Kirti Vardhan Singh, who coordinated with Kuwaiti authorities for swift repatriation of the bodies, said on his arrival in the capital.
“Some people have fractures in their hands and legs, and they are being treated. Our embassy is constantly in touch with the injured and monitoring the situation…The Kuwait government has been cooperative due to which we have been able to bring the bodies of the deceased here so quickly,” Singh told ANI.
Human rights groups have raised concerns over their living conditions. The state and federal governments have also announced compensation for the families of those who died in the fire.
According to the Arab Times, an investigation by authorities found that the fire started because of an electrical short circuit in the security guard’s room on the ground floor of the six-story building.
On Wednesday a senior Kuwait fire department official had said that inflammable material had been used as partitions between rooms and apartments in the building.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and other state lawmakers were at the airport to receive the bodies and pay homage to them.
