Pakistani family of five killed in Jordan farm fire

Three girls and their parents died from severe burns after tents caught fire

Farm labourers in the Jordan Valley, which is a centre for vegetable growing. Getty

A Pakistani family of five were killed in a fire on a farm in the Jordan Valley in the early hours of Tuesday, Jordanian police said.

Three girls and their parents died from severe burns when the two tents in which they were staying they were in caught fire, said officers.

The incident occurred in Ghor Al Mazraa, a vegetable-growing area in western Jordan.

Crews put out the fire at dawn on Tuesday and the family's bodies were transferred to the city of Karak, 130km south of Amman, police said.

Thousands of Pakistanis and other nationalities, including Egyptians, are employed as farm workers in the area. They live in tents or tin huts.

In 2019, a fire at a dwelling in the Jordan valley killed 13 people from Pakistan, including eight children.

Jordan has around one million registered foreign workers doing mostly menial jobs, comprising 10 per cent of the population.

Income per head in the kingdom of is around $4,000 per year.