Migrant workers killed in Bahrain fire

This video says about itself:

Bahrain police trap people in a garage and set fire to it – 23 Sept 2011

Video shot in Sanabis village near Manama, Bahrain on September 23, 2011 shows police leaving a home after chasing protesters inside and setting fire to it by throwing sound grenades near an opened cooking gas container according to eyewitnesses in the home. The protesters tried to escape through a garage when police officers outside tried to trap them in. Once the protesters managed to get out of the garage police fired rubber bullets at them from a close range and beat one of the youth on the street. At least seven of the protesters are being treated for third degree burns caused by the fire.

Later, when people from Sanabis were fighting to put out the flames, riot police again attacked them.

Fires kill workers in Bangladesh, Germany and elsewhere, as bosses’ profits often prevail over workers’ safety.

Today, news from Bahrain; where the dictatorial regime and bosses allied to it trample upon the rights of both Bahraini and immigrant workers:

Migrant workers killed in Bahrain fire

Firefighters locate remains of 13 people in three-storey building that caught fire at labour camp in capital, Manama.

Last Modified: 12 Jan 2013 06:53

A fire in a labour camp in the Bahraini capital Manama has killed at least 13 people, the country’s civil defence department has said.

The Bahrain News Agency quoted the acting head of civil defence as saying that firefighters had found the bodies of 13 people inside the three-storey building on Friday.

Hundreds of thousands of foreign labourers, mainly from the Asian subcontinent, work in the island kingdom, one of six oil-producing Gulf Arab states that rely heavily on foreign labour.

From Gulf Daily News:

The death toll could rise as firemen were late last night still searching the site for more victims after the roof of the building collapsed during the blaze.

The dead workers have yet to be identified. …

Sixteen workers died in a fire in Gudaibiya in 2006 and 10 others were killed in a blaze in East Riffa last year.

From the BBC:

The nationalities of those who died in unclear.

“In that building there are 28 rooms, of which there are three rooms occupied by Pakistani nationals and the rest occupied by Bangladeshis,” one resident of the building told Reuters.

According to the 2010 census, there are more than 660,000 foreign nationals living in Bahrain – the vast majority of whom are described as Asian – out of a total population of 1.23m.

From Migrant Rights:

A fire in a Manama labor camp killed at least 13 migrant workers on January 11. No information regarding the cause of the fire has been released, but Bahraini labour camps hold a seriously dangerous safety record: In May, a fire in an overcrowded labor camp killed 10 Bangladeshis. In 2009, two men were killed in another overcrowded labor camp – the sixth fire that had struck Bahraini labor camps within a 4-week period.

Twelve men shared a single room with no beds or air conditioning. Image from HRW

In 2008, a fire killed three Bangladeshis living in a run-down building, In 2007, a fire destroyed camps in East Riffa. In 2006, a fire killed 16 Indians and injured 7 others at another Manama labor camp.

A 2006 fire in Bahrain left at least 16 laborers dead. Image from ConstructionWeekOnline.com

Bahraini authorities as well as the companies responsible for these camps have repeatedly rejected efforts to improve housing standards. In 2008, Bahrain’s Migrant Workers’ Protection Society’s (MWPS) attempt to improve safety measures in several labor camp were received with little enthusiasm. Furthermore, some laborers who complain claim they get blackmailed by their companies or threatened with deportation.

Migrant Rights will continue to monitor the incident and will provide updates as more information is released.

Bahraini activist’s triumphant return. Amid a groundswell of support for the Al-Khawaja family to win the Nobel Prize, daughter Maryam ends her exile: here.

The Bahrain Blackout in Arab Media: here.

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