Help sought for victims after fire in labour camp

The labour camps recently met with major fire accidents that forced hundreds of Qatari residents to suffer over the last couple of days, wherein they lost their belongings.

Civil Defence contains a fire broke out at Silia without any casualties. #MOI_Qatar

— Ministry of Interior (@MOI_QatarEn) March 5, 2017

The first instance of fire broke in the Al Shahaniya camp on Friday, while the second one erupted on Sunday.

The Al Shahaniya camp, which is primary inhabited by over 500 people comprising of ow-income workers from the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, are now living a life of distress and are in need of help.

According to reports, the accident took place on Friday afternoon at an UrbaCon Trading & Contracting Co. (UCC) accommodation. However, both the Ministry of Interior (MOI) and the UCC have refrained from commenting publicly on the blaze, or the reason behind it.

But Philippine embassy officials told the Qatar Tribune that no one was killed in the fire.The newspaper quoted the embassy’s labor attache as saying: “We spoke with the company’s management and learned that they have extended assistance to the victims by distributing QR200 per worker for their urgent requirements. We also urged them to transfer the affected workers to a better accommodation.”

In an effort to help the people, community members are organizing in-kind donation drives to help the workers, collecting items like men’s clothes, toiletries, blankets and food.

In fact, people willing to donate any helpful item are asked asked to drop them off at UCC housing in Al Shahaniya, at Gate 2, which will be delivered by the Pinoy Offroaders Qatar group.

The Embassy received the fire report last night and today we went to their accommodation to check their condition and distributed food and clothing to those affected by the accident. The Embassy assured them it will provide the necessary consular assistance in case such as the loss of passports and that it will attend to their concerns involving their well-being,  Reyes said.

œWe also thank the members of the Filipino community in Qatar for the assistance that they have given to their fellow Kababayans in this time of distress,  he added.

Visiting the site at Al Shahaniya, the president of Indian Community Benevolent Forum (ICBF), Devis Edakkalathur said that many employees, most of them are expatriates from Asian countries, have lost personal belongings and travel documents in the fire accident. œThe ICBF team has taken initiatives to provide all the support to workers involved in the incident. We distributed enough food to workers on Saturday.

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