At around 10.40 am on June 21, the female migrant workers’ quarters at a seafood processing plant in Tamil Nadu’s Tiruvallur district, was almost full. Many of the women were still sleeping because it was a Sunday, their day off.
The quarters were situated on the first floor of the plant, operated by St Peter and Paul’s Sea Food and Exports. The floor was also crammed with equipment, including refrigeration machinery, pipeline systems and an ice flakes generator machine.
Suddenly, the occupants began to feel breathless. Ammonia, a poisonous gas, was leaking up from faulty infrastructure in the plant below, and quietly filling up the room.
When news of the gas leak broke out, Kiran Kumar immediately rushed to the hospital where victims were being taken. Kumar is a social worker with Jesuits Migrant Services, which aids and advocates for the rights of migrant workers.
He was keen to help the workers and their families in any way he could. But at the hospital, authorities denied him permission to meet the workers. Kumar was unsurprised – this was an obstacle he often faced in his work.
Over the next few days, Packiaraj SJ, a Jesuit priest and the head of the organisation, and Kumar, called government officials, and police and...
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