Kuwait: Dozens Killed As Fire Spreads Through Foreign Housing Complex
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
DUBAI (Worthy News) – A fire spread through a building housing foreign workers in Kuwait on Wednesday, killing dozens of Indian nationals and injuring many, officials said.
Interior Minister Sheikh Fahad Al-Yousuf Al-Sabah confirmed 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 property owner.”
India’s external affairs ministry said late Wednesday in a statement that “around 40 Indians are understood to have died and over 50 injured.”
The injured are being treated in five government hospitals in Kuwait and receiving “proper medical care and attention,” the statement added.
It said that India’s junior External Affairs Minister, Kirti Vardhan Singh, will be traveling to Kuwait to work toward early repatriation of mortal remains and provide medical assistance to those injured.
OFFERING CONDOLENCES
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered condolences to the victims and said the Indian Embassy is “closely monitoring the situation and working with the authorities there to assist the affected.”
“The fire mishap in Kuwait City is saddening. My thoughts are with all those who have lost their near and dear ones. I pray that the injured recover at the earliest,” Modi wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Like other Persian Gulf countries, Kuwait has a large community of migrant workers far outnumber the local population. Kuwait has come under pressure to improve the safety and working circumstances of migrants.
The nation of some 4.2 million people is slightly smaller than the U.S. state of New Jersey but has the world’s sixth-largest known oil reserves.
A fire at an oil refinery in 2022 killed four people.
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