'Work is work, it has to be done': Brickmakers in Pakistan scorched by sun above and fire below

As dark plumes billow from overhead smokestacks, brickmakers at a kiln in Sheikhupura district crush coal through small holes beneath their feet into the fiery chambers below. Workers already have to endure extreme conditions at traditional brick kilns, which burn at over 1,000°C and demand constant monitoring to ensure they remain hot enough. But they are becoming almost unbearable as climate change makes summers even hotter in a country already used to temperatures well over 40°C . A man works at a brick kiln in Sheikhupura, Punjab on July 20, 2026. —AFP Abid Hussain, a 35-year-old labourer whose clothes were covered in dark soot, told AFP the work felt like being trapped between fire…