On a Wednesday morning, Kuwait got a rude awakening: fire had engulfed a company dormitory belonging to one of the Kerala based construction firms in Mangaf, just about but thirty minutes’ drive from the Kuwait city leaving 49 lives lost. Among the dead were forty Indians, mostly from Kerala.
Within hours of the incident, Kuwait Interior Minister Sheikh Fahd Youssef Al-Sabah visited the site and said: “What has happened today is due to company’s greed and owners.” Sheikh Fahd also added that he had directed Kuwait Municipality and public manpower authorities to rectify similar violations in which a large number of laborers are pack into one residential building at once. In the meantime, Dr. Noura AlMashaan, Minister of Public Works and Municipality in Kuwait was reported by The Kuwait Times as having suspended a municipal official responsible for Manjaf where this calamity happened.
Rescue operations are still going on as well as investigations being carried out by Indian government and their counterparts in Kuwait but two statements made by Kuwait’s interior minister and suspension of some municipal officials suggest that there may have been compromise on decent and safe living conditions for workers thereby possibly worsening impact of this tragedy.
In Mangav where it happened according to activists, this destroyed six story building had 195 workers housed inside. A list shown by local activists indicated that these included 175 Indians, 11 Filipinos along with 5 Nepalis plus two Pakistanis besides two Egyptians respectively. Such figures mean that each flat can have four occupants or even more than that. In my studies about labor rights I visit such accommodation places as well as labor camps around Kuwait among other Gulf nations where I meet with employees; thus I understand that up to now fifty nine individuals have died in the above mentioned six story structure whose standards surpass typical “architecture”.
Unfortunately employers usually ignore providing decent and secure housing for migrant worker within Arabian Gulf (Oman, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain). Migrant workers often live in mid-level employee dormitories where there are hardly any three or four bodies sharing a 150-square-foot room; therefore there is little space to move around or to keep one’s properties. Most of staff housing has messy and ruined common lavatories and unhygienic eating areas.
If this is the situation with employee accommodation facilities, then in blue-collar worker shelters across Arabian Gulf at least about four-six people dwell in rooms whose size range between 100 and 150 square feet. I noticed tiny rooms for at least six persons with only beddings present during my visit to labor camp at Mina Abdullah area. Such compartments lack proper ventilation and usually air conditioning does not work well within them as required. However, despite these conditions, manual workers earning INR 20,000/month continue to suffer from cramped and inadequate living spaces. Many of them migrate due to lack of employment opportunities in their home countries and become victims of debt bondage.
It is not uncommon to see many countries neglecting the Workers’ Housing Recommendation since it is not a legally binding instrument even though the International Labor Organization (ILO) proposed for it as early as 1961. The housing should provide “structural safety and reasonable levels of decency, hygiene and comfort” as per the recommendation. The guidelines state that each worker should have a separate bed with sufficient headroom to allow full freedom of movement of at least 203 cm. The minimum internal dimensions of the sleeping space should be at least 198 cm x 80 cm. Beds should have no more than two tiers and bedding material must be comfortable and designed to prevent pests.
To begin with, the size of rooms where people sleep should not be less than 7.5 square meters if two people share, 11.5 square meters when three occupants are present or else 14.5 square meters when four individuals stay in this room but if there are more than four persons in such dormitory then each must occupy not less than 3.6 squares meters. All I can say for now is….
Querying about this from Ministry of External Affairs via Right To Information Act late in year 2023 shows that between January – Dec’2019 until June’ 2023 Indian embassies in Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar United Arab Emirates Oman dealt with total of forty eight thousand ninety five complaints lodged by labor migrants from India. In all these instances reported evidence showed an element forced labour according to International Labour Organization (ILO).
On considering approximately fifty thousand cases of labor disputes out of over five hundred thousand which reached our office one would realize they represent tip iceberg. Some factors contribute to this underreporting like distance from workplace to India embassy fear retaliation from influential local employers or simply lack fare taxi reaching embassy where complainant can disclose exploitative conditions. Shortly speaking only fifty out five hundred registered ones.
The Kafala system subjects migrant workers heading for the Arabian Gulf states to inhuman labor rights abuses. But this system is a contemporary form of slavery that promotes exploitative relationships between employers and employees. In Arab Gulf countries, such as construction and domestic work related sectors, migrant workers face poor working conditions; housing conditions; significant health and safety risks; and poor labour inspections. Although wages are guaranteed through bank transfers, freedom of movement, limited working hours, and access to medical care are often violated.
Nevertheless, India continues to control migrants as per the Immigration Act 1983 even now but when it has become the leading country’s sending them abroad (over 1.3 million Indian migrants worldwide) receiving their remittances ($111 bn).
We can demand decent employment and housing terms under an updated Immigration Act henceforth or we could introduce standard operating procedures for addressing issues associated with Indian victims in foreign lands. However at least so far the Indian government has failed in this regard tending to scramble responding when something unfortunate happens.
The well-known author of “Undocumented” is a prominent researcher on labor migration .
