Kuwait tragedy

THE death of 49 people, mostly Indians, in a fire that engulfed a building housing foreign workers in Mangaf, Kuwait, has turned the spotlight on the conditions under which these employees live and work not only in this Gulf nation but the region as a whole. Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Fahad Yusuf Saud Al-Sabah, who visited the site, has blamed the greed of real-estate owners for such incidents, even as an investigation has been launched to pinpoint the lapses and fix accountability. India’s immediate focus is on the identification of the bodies and bringing back the mortal remains of the victims, besides granting ex gratia relief to the families of the deceased. At the same time, New Delhi needs to be actively involved in the probe to ensure that those responsible for the tragedy are dealt with strictly.

Those under scrutiny include the companies that hire foreign workers and the realtors who provide accommodation, besides travel agents who facilitate recruitment. According to reports, India’s embassy in Kuwait received over 16,000 complaints from Indian citizens working there between March 2021 and December 2023. Most of them pertained to delays in the payment of salaries, below-par accommodation and harassment by employers. Alarmingly, over 1,400 Indians, mostly migrant workers, died in Kuwait in 2022 and 2023, according to information shared by the Ministry of External Affairs in Parliament earlier this year. All this suggests that the Indian authorities have been lax in addressing the workers’ concerns.

India is the world leader in terms of remittance receipts, with a total of $125 billion being sent by Indians living across the globe to their families back home last year. Gulf Cooperation Council countries are among the biggest sources of India’s remittance inflow. New Delhi must press these nations to crack down on unscrupulous employers who compromise the safety and wellbeing of workers.