Minister of Labour, Jameel Bin Mohammed Ali Humaidan expressed his deep sorrow over the tragic accident occurred early morning today and led to the killing of 10 Asian workers suffocating due to the spread of carbon monoxide inside their home in East Riffa, and also forwarded his condolences to the victims’ families.
Assistant Undersecretary for Labour Affairs, Ministry of Labour, Dr. Mohammed Ali Al-Ansari said that Ministry official were immediately gone to the scene after receiving a call from the security authorities to conduct the technical investigation necessary in such cases.
It was clear that the residents of that private house are free visa workers, who have rented that house on their own, and therefore they don’t cover by the labour laws related to health conditions of the workers’ housing.
This edict requires that the housing should be provided and equipped by the employer, and the responsibility of the Ministry is to monitor such housings, where it inspects them periodically to confirm their legal convenience.
Dr. Al Ansari called on all employers that they must consider applying the requirements of occupational health and safety when housing their workers, particularly with regard to precautions necessary to prevent the risk of fire, which is the primary cause of the occurrence of many mishaps.
He also stressed that the Ministry of Labour will coordinate with all relevant government institutions to discuss the required procedures and measures to minimize the effects of this negative phenomenon.
Assistant Undersecretary for Labour Affairs said that after the initial investigation of the tragic accident, it was clear that the fire that broke out at 4am in due to an increase in electrical load, which led to the outbreak of fire in the electrical distributor within the housing component of the one story house. Therefore, due to that reason, the ten workers were suffocated in their bedroom by the smoke of the fire, which led to their deaths.
In addition, Ministry of Labor received a call from Al Hoora police station saying that a worker had died during his work in cleaning up one of the facades of the buildings in the Diplomatic Area.
The investigation unit at the Ministry directly headed to the incident scene, where they found out that preliminary investigation indicated that the attached rope-carrying the platform was cut and caused the fall of the worker and led to his death.
Meanwhile, investigation is underway to uncover the circumstances of the accident and prepare the technical report which includes the legal violations and the perpetrators who caused it, and will submit the report to the Attorney General for appropriate action.