A tire shop fire in Abu Dhabi late on Friday killed 10 foreign workers and injured eight others who were living in an upstairs apartment, the local Gulf News reported on Saturday.
The blaze in the Musaffah district gutted the two-story building, which contained seven shops on the ground floor but was illegally used as workers’ accommodation upstairs, the paper reported, citing police sources.
“The 10 individuals who died were residing in the upper floor that was actually designed to be used as a warehouse, not a place of residence,” the daily newspaper quoted the Interior Ministry as saying.
It did not give the names or nationalities of those killed and injured and said the police were investigating the cause of the fire.
International human rights groups have called on Gulf countries to increase protections for foreign workers, who are often paid less than they were promised and endure difficult working and living conditions.
