Kuwait fire: India repatriates bodies of 45 workers

An Indian Air Force flight has brought back the bodies of 45 workers killed in a fire in Kuwait.

The fire broke out on Wednesday in a residential building in the town of Mangaf where 176 Indian workers lived.

Kuwaiti authorities said 50 people were killed in the fire, including 45 Indians and three Filipinos. Two bodies have not yet been identified.

On Thursday, an Indian minister arrived in Kuwait to coordinate efforts to identify the victims and bring them home.

Two-thirds of Kuwait's population are foreign workers and the country is heavily dependent on migrant labor, particularly in the construction and cleaning sectors.

Human rights groups have regularly raised concerns about their living conditions.

Dozens of workers, most of them Indian, were also injured in the fire.

Indian Minister Kirti Vardhan Singh said DNA tests had been carried out to identify the victims.

Of the workers confirmed dead, 23 are from Kerala, seven from Tamil Nadu, three from Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, two from Odisha and one each from Bihar, Punjab, Karnataka, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Haryana.

Mr Singh said the Indian government had arranged a special air force flight to bring back the bodies.

The plane landed in Kerala's Kochi city on Friday morning, where the bodies of workers from southern Indian states will be handed over to authorities, and then continues to Delhi.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and other state lawmakers arrived at the airport to receive the bodies and pay their respects.

The state government has arranged ambulances to transport the bodies of the workers to their homes for the last rites.

“It is a huge tragedy for our country. Kerala's migrant workers are the lifeblood of our state. The fire in Kuwait is one of the biggest tragedies affecting our community,” Mr. Vijayan said.

The state and federal governments have announced compensation for the families of those who died in the fire.

In Kuwait, authorities say they are carrying out an inspection of health and safety conditions in several buildings housing foreign workers in the country.

According to the Arab Times, an investigation by authorities revealed that the fire broke out due to an electrical short circuit in the security guards' room located on the ground floor of the building. six floors.

A senior Kuwait fire official said Wednesday that flammable materials had been used as partitions between rooms and apartments in the building.

Kuwait's public prosecutor's office arrested a citizen and some expatriates on charges of manslaughter and negligence for failing to implement fire safety measures, the Times reported.

After the fire, Sheikh Fahad Yusuf al-Sabah, the country's deputy prime minister, accused the owners of greed and said violations of building standards had led to the tragedy.