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A spokesperson from the Indian embassy in Doha was quoted by the BBC as saying that the "overwhelming number" of deaths were due to natural causes. The BBC also quotes the head of Qatar's National Human Rights Committee, a body close to the government which insists that "If we look at the numbers of Qataris who died... of natural causes... over the past two years, we see that numbers of deaths among the Indian community are normal." There are about 500,000 Indians living in the emirate, twice the number of Qatari nationals.
But ITUC, which compiled its report after interacting with thousands of workers at ten different labour camps outside Doha discredits such arguments vehemently. Its report is littered with horrifying case studies of exploited migrants who've faced all forms of harassment right from restricted freedom of movement through a draconian sponsorship law Kafala, discrimination on wages, enforcement of fraudulent contracts, confiscation of passports and appalling living, health and safety conditions all de facto sanctioned by an unfair legal system.
"Whether the cause of death is labeled as work accidents, heart attack (brought on by the life threatening effects of heat stress) or diseases from squalid living conditions, the root cause is the same - working conditions" ITUC stresses. It says quoting diplomatic sources that "the Qatari government is harassing embassy officials to keep quiet about these deaths in order to keep the flow of labour coming."
It is unlikely that the Indian government is unaware of these lurid details. The casualty figures have after all been compiled from embassy records itself. But it isn't difficult to guess the reason for its deafening silence on the matter. These workers are a great source of remittances which the Indian economy has been hungry for recently. Moreover as the Asian Human Rights Commission observed, it is naive to expect a nation that has rarely shown much concern for its citizenry living inside the country to be bothered about those stuck in foreign shores. In a scathing indictment it said "the body bags" piling up and returning to India "failed to evoke even an acknowledgment from the government" until Nepal took Qatar to a task for the 385 body bags it had received in the same period. "No one in the Indian government seemed too bothered, even after that". The Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs lists a catalog of Billateral Labour Agreements it has entered into with countries in the Gulf including Qatar to protect Indian workers. They seem to do little good. Full story...
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A spokesperson from the Indian embassy in Doha was quoted by the BBC as saying that the "overwhelming number" of deaths were due to natural causes. The BBC also quotes the head of Qatar's National Human Rights Committee, a body close to the government which insists that "If we look at the numbers of Qataris who died... of natural causes... over the past two years, we see that numbers of deaths among the Indian community are normal." There are about 500,000 Indians living in the emirate, twice the number of Qatari nationals.
But ITUC, which compiled its report after interacting with thousands of workers at ten different labour camps outside Doha discredits such arguments vehemently. Its report is littered with horrifying case studies of exploited migrants who've faced all forms of harassment right from restricted freedom of movement through a draconian sponsorship law Kafala, discrimination on wages, enforcement of fraudulent contracts, confiscation of passports and appalling living, health and safety conditions all de facto sanctioned by an unfair legal system.
"Whether the cause of death is labeled as work accidents, heart attack (brought on by the life threatening effects of heat stress) or diseases from squalid living conditions, the root cause is the same - working conditions" ITUC stresses. It says quoting diplomatic sources that "the Qatari government is harassing embassy officials to keep quiet about these deaths in order to keep the flow of labour coming."
It is unlikely that the Indian government is unaware of these lurid details. The casualty figures have after all been compiled from embassy records itself. But it isn't difficult to guess the reason for its deafening silence on the matter. These workers are a great source of remittances which the Indian economy has been hungry for recently. Moreover as the Asian Human Rights Commission observed, it is naive to expect a nation that has rarely shown much concern for its citizenry living inside the country to be bothered about those stuck in foreign shores. In a scathing indictment it said "the body bags" piling up and returning to India "failed to evoke even an acknowledgment from the government" until Nepal took Qatar to a task for the 385 body bags it had received in the same period. "No one in the Indian government seemed too bothered, even after that". The Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs lists a catalog of Billateral Labour Agreements it has entered into with countries in the Gulf including Qatar to protect Indian workers. They seem to do little good. Full story...
Related posts:
- More than 900 workers have already died building Qatar’s World Cup...
- More than 450 Indian workers died in Qatar in just one year...
- Qatar World Cup: 400 Nepalese die on nation's building sites since bid won...
- Qatar migrant workers 'treated like animals'
- The Nepalis dying on Qatar's World Cup building sites...
- The death mill: Qatar and the World Cup...
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