Sri Lankan workers die under huge landslide

In the afternoon of April 14, in an outlying area of Colombo, a huge section of a rubbish dump came crashing down on workers’ homes.  With recovery efforts still ongoing, the final death toll is likely to top 50 people. Around 150 houses were either destroyed or seriously damaged. This disaster was not an unfortunate accident but the result of wilful neglect by successive governments to the dangers that these working class communities are facing. In the aftermath of this collapse, a government representative went so far as to blame the workers themselves for the deaths.

In the afternoon of April 14, in an outlying area of Colombo, a huge section of a rubbish dump came crashing down on workers’ homes.  With recovery efforts still ongoing, the final death toll is likely to top 50 people. Around 150 houses were either destroyed or seriously damaged. This disaster was not an unfortunate accident but the result of wilful neglect by successive governments to the dangers that these working class communities are facing. In the aftermath of this collapse, a government representative went so far as to blame the workers themselves for the deaths.