An estimated 10,000 migrant workers from South and Southeast Asia die annually in the Gulf states, according to a report by a group of human rights groups.
More than half of the deaths go unnoticed, the report said, and are often recorded for “natural causes” or “cardiac arrest”. But Gulf regions are failing to properly investigate why so many migrant workers are dying.
The report, Significant Signs: Deaths of Migrants in the Gulf, is compiled by non-governmental organizations from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal and the Philippines, as well as FairSquare Projects, a London-based immigration rights organization.
Low-paid migrant workers in the Gulf are exposed to a host of health risks, including heat and humidity, air pollution, overwork and stressful working conditions, poor health and safety at work, stress, and high blood pressure. Long hours of manual labor at high temperatures can cause heat stress, which can lead to organ damage, the report said.
Julhas Uddin, a 37-year-old Bangladeshi man, died in Saudi Arabia in October 2017 when a supervisor ordered him to enter a sewage system without an air cylinder. No investigation was carried out, and the death certificate said the cause was “heart failure and breathing”.
There are about 30 million migrants working in the Arab Gulf countries – the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait. About 80% of these are employed in low-paying sectors such as construction, tourism and domestic work, and come from poorer Asian and African countries.
“Despite the real reliance on Gulf states for foreign workers and the strong impact of immigrant income on their countries’ economy, both states and territories for a long time do not pay enough attention to ensure they return home healthy,” he said. Anurag Devkota, a lawyer from the Nepal Law and Policy Forum for Social Justice. “As a result, most do not return home at all, or do so with boxes or body bags.”
Despite widespread criticism of workers’ exploitation – especially in connection with Qatar’s preparations for this year’s World Cup – Gulf states have strongly avoided changing staff structures, and their background has not been able to ensure adequate security for their citizens abroad.
The governments of the six Gulf states did not respond to requests for comment.