Recently, four Indian migrant labourers, including a man named Suresh Kumar, stood alongside a Kuwaiti road amid a scorching 43-degree heat, their possessions packed into bags. Having been forced out of their headquarter due to a crackdown on building regulation infractions following a devastating fire in June that led to the deaths of 49 migrants, primarily Indians, they were left homeless and uncertain of their next destination.
They had been residing on the ground floor of an apartment building, which is against building protocols. Hence, the room, which was shared among the four workers and measured a mere 16 square metres, was being torn down.
Despite being one of the wealthiest nations globally, thanks to its $980 billion (€885 billion) sovereign fund derived from oil sales, Kuwait’s affluence barely trickles down to migrants like Kumar and his mates. The men, subcontracted construction workers on state oil firm and refining company projects in Kuwait, endure low wages and substandard living conditions, along with a minimal power to seek justice.
Between the four of them, they scrape together a monthly rent of about $325. Given that a full flat would cost more than double, they have no choice but to continue their search for a new shared room, regardless of its safety or comfort levels.
The June fire was catastrophic, consuming a seven-storey building inhabited by nearly 200 migrant workers. This event shocked the residents of Kuwait and kickstarted an unexpected public debate on the safety standards of migrant worker lodging, leading to widespread issuance of violation notices for breaching building codes.
However, human rights advocates argue that these activities fail to address the systemic issues affecting migrant workers in Kuwait and other Gulf states. In some scenarios, the government’s response further disadvantages the migrants themselves, expelling them from their lodgings and leaving them in apprehension of deportation. Following the fire tragedy, an undisclosed number of immigrant workers with visa irregularities were apprehended by Kuwait’s interior ministry.
James Lynch, a director at FairSquare, a London-origin research party focusing on rights exploitation inquiries, poignantly pointed out the tragic reality that migrant workers only receive attention in the event of a catastrophe. The Kuwaiti government’s neglect of worker housing only gained attention when the disastrous consequences reflected poorly on them.
This, along with constrained political freedoms and labour rights, compounds the insecurity migrants endure resulting in their reluctance to vocalise their grievances or demand amends.
Neither the public manpower authority of Kuwait responsible for labour matters, nor the Kuwaiti oil firms that supposedly employed Kumar and his fellow lodgers via third-party contractors, delivered a response when reached out for comment.
Post-disaster, the New York Times carried out interviews with 18 Kuwait-based migrants regarding their living circumstances. Many requested a level of anonymity due to fear of reprisals. A number of them reported sudden authoritative clampdowns on regulations, with minimal prior warning to vacate their households.
Migrant rights campaigners and academics identified the root issue being ‘kafala’, a system that binds overseas workers to their employers in the Gulf. This, alongside the power discrepancies experienced by migrants from less affluent nations in both Asia and Africa who journey to the Gulf for a chance at earning higher wages than in their home countries.
In Kuwait, providing accommodation for workers is a legal requirement for employers, however many workers were left on their own to seek housing. Pakistani employees, Rashid and Rahmat (who chose not to provide their surnames) depicted the gruelling process of canvassing building after building manually to inquire about vacancies. Their foremost battle, they revealed, is securing affordable accommodations.
Manishankar Prasad, an independent labour studies researcher based in Malaysia, discussed the ‘kafala’ system, labelling these workers as expendable. Prasad, an Indian ex-pat who grew up in the Gulf, expressed his outrage as he kept abreast of the deaths ensuing from the fire, monitoring as the identities of the deceased gradually surfaced on social media platforms.
Expatriates account for more than two-thirds of Kuwait’s four million populace, a proportion which is amplified in nearby countries such as Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. A good number are employed in desk jobs, however, Gulf-wide, critical roles such as street sweepers, drivers, builders, childcare providers, cashiers and various other trades are often filled by migrants from lower income backgrounds.
“This existing system seems to be bereft of motivation for any changes to occur,” expressed Prasad, “because for every worker who loses their life, there are 10 others ready to fill the void in a blink of an eye.”
A catastrophic fire erupted on June 12th in the early dawn in the Mangaf suburbs of Kuwait’s capital city — an area densely populated by migrant workers. Eyewitnesses interviewed by New York Times revealed the disturbing account of waking up to cries of desperation and dense black smoke penetrating the corridors of the residential buildings. Gulf countries are notorious for lenient building regulations; residential properties lacking fire safety measures like smoke detectors and emergency exits are common. Apart from the 49 residents who suffered a tragic end, injuries were sustained by over 50 other individuals.
Kuwait’s fire personnel confirmed the malfunction of an electrical circuit as the ignition source; the fire began in a guard’s residence on the ground floor. Following an inspection of the devastation, Sheikh Fahad Yusuf Al Sabah, Kuwait’s Deputy Prime Minister, strongly condemned the property owners’ avarice, promising that the employer of the workers would face arrest. Shortly after, Kuwait’s Public Works Minister, Noura Al Mashaan, promised that action would be taken against building code infringements.
Kuwaiti legislation mandates that no more than four employees are to be accommodated in a single room, with defined space provisions for each individual. Living conditions must have proper ventilation. Further, employers are obligated to provide air conditioning as well as ensure at least one restroom facility for every group of eight workers.
Depak Pasma, a 24-year-old Nepalese, shared that his Mangaf residence, provided by his employer, was a spacious air-conditioned room divided among four occupants.
However, the experiences relayed by many others painted a different picture. Several workers reported living in tiny, crammed rooms within unlawfully split apartments. Others noted they resided in buildings where the ground-floor apartments were now being ripped apart.
The system is such that the migrant workers’ journey is fraught with dangers from the outset, often multiplied by nefarious brokers and unscrupulous money lenders brazenly exploiting them right from their homeland — plunging them into depths of financial hardship even before they commence employment.
““We’ve long been residents of this building without any issues,” comments Sayed Abu Khalid, an Egyptian employed by a supermarket, aged 58. “After the Mangaf incident, there’s now a demand for us to vacate the ground floor.”
Abu Khalid resides in a two-bedroom flat that accommodates eight individuals. The property owner intends to pull down their flat, while the occupants are hoping to relocate to an unoccupied flat above.
Together, the eight tenants hand over almost $1,000 per month to a sub-letter, who in turn pays approximately $800 to the landlord of the flat and pockets the surplus, reveals Abu Khalid.
The risky system that migrant labourers must manoeuvre, is inherently structured to bring profit to middlemen. Their predicaments sometimes take root in their mother countries, where they fall prey to ruthless recruitment agencies and loan sharks, sinking them into debt prior to starting work. On reaching the Gulf, their employment is usually under third-party contractors who sponsor their visas, provide accommodation and find work for them in other organisations.
The victims of the deadly fire were on the payroll of a third-party contracting firm, NBTC Group. Responding to the tragedy, NBTC Group issued a statement expressing its “deep shock and sorrow”, pledging to donate almost $10,000 to the bereaved families. It announced its readiness to provide “the maximum possible support”.
This sort of third-party setup is quite standard in Gulf nations, enabling final employers to delegate the duties of recruiting and accommodating migrant labourers. “It’s just a handy way of ridging risk and liability onto the private sector,” states Lynch of FairSquare.
The NBTC Group operates across several sectors in the Gulf, from construction and engineering, to logistics and beyond. In Kuwait, as per the website, firms such as Kuwait Oil, Kuwait National Petroleum and the US army corps of engineers have subcontracted it.
In its statement, the corps maintains, it is “dedicated to the welfare” of workers, and to ensuring contractor compliance with federal prerequisites through “periodical site surveys and conversations with contractor staff”.
Gulf nations’ economies hinge on affordable foreign workforce, often resulting in sub-standard housing due to cost reduction, Lynch observes, noting however, that merely charging the private sector “overlooks a vital piece of the problem – the omission of the state in honouring its commitment.” This article first appeared in The New York Times.