The fire started on August 9 at a factory in Riyadh’s Musa Sanaiya industrial area, where sofas were made and furniture was upholstered. Saudi Arabia’s Civil Defence said firefighters put out the fire at what it described as an unlicensed premises but gave no casualty figures or details of the fire’s cause. The following day, Bangladesh’s foreign ministry confirmed the death of 16 of its citizens in the incident, calling it a “deep shock”.
The Bangladesh Embassy in Riyadh sent a delegation to the scene immediately after the fire and has been working with Saudi authorities to identify victims and complete formalities to send them home.
9 Bodies Confirmed, Flight Booked
Saudi authorities identified nine of the victims through fingerprint verification, the Bangladesh Embassy said. Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Ariful Haque Chowdhury was to receive their bodies personally at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport from a Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight.
Seven of the nine identified victims were workers of Atrai upazila in Naogaon district who had come to Saudi Arabia from different villages of the area to work in the same factory. The other seven victims are currently being identified and repatriated, local officials said.
Death in Naogaon
The deceased were identified as Suman, 35, and Hasibul Hasan Shuvo, 27, of Dubai village under Bisha Union and several others from adjacent villages who had gone to work at the same facility in Riyadh.
In a condolence message, Minister Chowdhury said their deaths were “deeply heartbreaking” and highlighted the disproportionate contribution Bangladeshi migrant workers make to the national economy. He directed officials to speed up the return of the bodies and to guarantee that the victims’ families receive government assistance and compensation.
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A Common Risk for Migrant Workers
Saudi Arabia remains the biggest destination for Bangladeshi migrant labour, with an estimated 3.5 million Bangladeshi nationals working in the country, generating more than $2.7 billion in remittances in the past year alone. Bangladeshi and other South Asian workers are a major part of the kingdom’s construction, manufacturing and service sectors, often in jobs with limited bargaining power and few protections against unsafe working conditions.
The Riyadh fire has renewed questions about workplace safety standards for migrant workers in Saudi Arabia’s industrial economy, where unlicensed or poorly regulated facilities can leave workers particularly vulnerable. For families in Bangladesh, the loss of one breadwinner abroad often means the sudden stop of remittances that pay for school fees, medical costs and loans taken out to finance the job abroad in the first place.
What’s Next?
Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman said he was being regularly updated on the repatriation process and has directed the foreign ministry and the ministry for expatriate welfare and overseas employment to closely coordinate with the embassy in Riyadh. With the first nine bodies back home, the focus now shifts to identifying the remaining seven victims and ensuring their families get the same support, and broader questions over what protections, if any, will be put in place for the millions of Bangladeshis still working in similar conditions in Saudi Arabia.
Summary: Nine of the 16 Bangladeshi workers killed in a fire at a sofa manufacturing factory in Riyadh have been identified through fingerprint verification and their bodies are scheduled to arrive in Bangladesh this week on a Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight. Seven of the nine victims were from Atrai upazila in Naogaon and efforts are on to identify and bring back the rest.
