Indian consulate in Jeddah making arrangements to return bodies of 11 migrant workers

New Delhi: The Indian consulate in Jeddah is making arrangements to bring back the bodies of 11 Indian workers killed in a fire in a house in Saudi Arabia’s Najran city, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday. [caption id=“attachment_3529363” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. PTI[/caption] Of the 11, four were from Uttar Pradesh, three from Kerala and one each from Bihar, Tamil Nadu and Punjab, MEA spokesperson Gopal Baglay said at his weekly media briefing here. While Tabrej Khan, Ateeq Ahmad, Waseem Akram, Mohammad Waseem Azizur Rahman and Vakeel Ahmad hailed from Uttar Pradesh, Kamalapan Sathyan, Baiju Raghavan and Sreejith Kottassseri were from Kerala, Gauri Shankar Gupta was from Bihar, Morokanandan Kaliyan from Tamil Nadu and Paras Kumar Subedar from Punjab, he said. All of them were employees of Emaar EA Motahedon Trading and Contracting Company. The 11 migrant labourers died of asphyxiation in Najran on Wednesday in a fire that engulfed the windowless house they shared, the Saudi Gazette said. “Firefighters put out the blaze in an old house lacking windows for ventilation. Eleven people died of asphyxiation, and six others were injured,” the report quoted Najran civil defence spokesman Abdullah Al-Farie as saying. The fire broke out at around 4 a.m. in the three-bedroom derelict house that had no windows for air circulation. Najran is a city in southwestern Saudi Arabia near the border with volatile Yemen. Baglay said the Indian consulate in Jeddah is in touch with local authorities and the Governorate of Najran region. “We are also in touch with the local authorities as well as the hospital to ensure that all possible assistance and treatment is extended to the injured,” he sated. On Wednesday night, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj tweeted that she had spoken to the Indian consul general in Jeddah. “I have spoken to Consul General Jeddah. Najran is 900 kilometre from Jeddah. Our staff is rushing by the first flight available,” she stated. “Our consul general is in touch with the governor of Najran. He is updating me on regular basis.”