12 Jun. 24: At least 49 people were killed in Kuwait on Wednesday after a fire broke out in a building housing foreign workers. A government agency for Keralites living outside the state said it had been told by the Indian community in Kuwait that 41 Indians, including 11 from Kerala, had died in the fire.
The building, located in the Mangaf area in Kuwait’s southern Ahmadi Governorate, was housing over 160 workers. The fire started in a kitchen in the six-storey building.
Kuwait’s Interior Minister Sheikh Fahad Al-Yousuf Al-Sabah confirmed the toll and ordered the arrest of the building’s owner during a visit to the site, local media reported.
“We will address the issue of labor overcrowding,” he said. “I’m now going to see what violations were committed here and I will deal with the owner of the property.”
Local media said scores of workers were living in the building in the southern Mangaf district, without giving their nationality.
Col. Sayed Hassan al-Mousawi, head of the firefighters’ Accident Investigation Department, said there were dozens of casualties and that the final death toll may be higher.
Kuwait, like other Persian Gulf countries, has a large community of migrant workers who far outnumber the local population.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha to attend the oath-taking ceremonies of the newly-elected Chief Ministers, held a meet to review the situation relating to the fire incident in Kuwait.
“Upon reaching back to Delhi after today’s two oath-taking ceremonies, chaired a meeting to review the situation in the wake of the fire mishap in Kuwait, where people of Indian origin have been affected. GoI is doing everything possible to assist those affected by this gruesome fire tragedy,” PM Modi said on X.
