Bahrain launches probe

Bahrain’s ministry of labour has said investigation is under way to uncover the circumstances of the fire incident that killed 10 Bangladeshi workers early Sunday.

The ministry said the probe body would prepare the technical report which would include the legal violations and the perpetrators who caused it, and would submit the report to the attorney general for appropriate action.

Expressing deep sorrow at the tragic accident, Bahrain’s minister of labour, Jameel Bin Mohammed Ali Humaidan, said those who died after inhaling smoke were all free visa workers, according to a report run by 24X7news.com, an online news service of Bahrain.

According to the report, the minister also conveyed his condolences to the victims’ families.

The 10 Bangladeshi workers died of suffocation due to the spread of carbon monoxide inside their home in East Riffa.

Nine of the deceased were Mohammad Hanif, 55, of Kalmia village, his brother-in-law Mohammad Sulaiman, 40, of Jashpur village, and son-in-law Monir Hossain, 33, of Jamira village, Nurul Islam, 45, of Shaker Monipur village, Anawar Hossain, 40, of Uttarda village, Siddiqur Rahman, 23, of Buschi Purbopara village and Abu Taher, 38, of Susanda village in Sadar South upazila of Comilla, Abul Hashem, 32, of Jugirkandi village in Chouddagram upazila, and Syed Ahmed, 35 of Hajiganj upazila of Chandpur.

The assistant undersecretary for Bahrain’s labour affairs, ministry of labour, Mohammed Ali Al-Ansari, said the ministry officials immediately visited 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 do not 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.

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 would coordinate with all relevant government institutions to discuss the required procedures and measures to minimise the effects of this negative phenomenon.

The 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 4:00am 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 labour 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.