The bodies of Indian nationals who were killed in the explosion at the Ras Laffan industrial zone in Qatar were repatriated on June 26, the Indian Embassy said on Saturday. This is the second group of bodies of Indian victims of the incident.
An explosion had occurred at a Liquified Natural Gas processing plant in Ras Laffan on June 21 when operators were resuming operations following the disruption caused by US-Israel-Iran war. The incident had claimed 13 lives and injured many.
Of the deceased, 12 were Indians, the India’s Embassy in Qatar had confirmed earlier. The CEO of the plant Saad Al-Kaabi had informed that the deceased were Indians and Pakistanis, that would mean the one other victim of the incident must have been a Pakistani national.
“Mortal remains of 8 Indian nationals who unfortunately passed away in Ras Laffan accident have been repatriated to India on June 26. 4 out of 12 mortal remains had been repatriated on June 25,” the Embassy said on X.
The Embassy also thanked Qatari authorities and officials of the company who had employed the workers for providing medical attention to the injured workers. India’s Ambassador to Qatar and other Embassy officials met the injured workers in Alkhor today.
“Embassy of India, Doha thanks Qatari authorities, Indian community organisations and Government authorities in India for their prompt support,” the Embassy said.
Earlier, the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani had dialled Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to express his grief over the loss of 12 Indians in the accident, spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs Randhir Jaiswal had confirmed. He had also informed that a diplomatic outreach was made to the Qatari officials in the aftermath of the accident.
The bulk of the workers in these industrial cities of the Gulf region are made up of South Asians. According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), around 40 percent of the workforce in the Gulf comes from other countries.
“The economies of the six oil-rich Gulf states of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are highly dependent on low-paid migrant workers from Asian states such as India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines,” said a report, titled ‘Vital Signs: The Deaths Of Migrants In The Gulf’, by Fair Square, a business financing group.
These migrant workers often face precarious conditions of work, according to media reports. “On construction sites in Qatar, in order to reduce breaks and keep people on site, teams of workers reported receiving buckets of frozen water to share, forcing them to wait for the ice to melt and take turns before drinking,” a report by The Guardian had noted.
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