Qatar World Cup: In 10 years, 2,711 migrant workers from India have died

Updated : February 23, 2021 03:40 PM IST

The number of Indians who have died are highest among migrant workers who majorly go from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

It’s been over 10 years since Qatar won the right to host the 2022 football world cup. In these 10 years, over 6,750 migrant workers from five south Asian nations — India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka — have died in the country, stated a report published in the Guardian. Of these, the number of Indian migrant workers who have died is 2,711 — the highest among the five nations.

If broken down further, the findings mean that on average 12 migrant workers from these five nations have died each week since the night in December 2010 when Doha was celebrating Qatar’s victory to host the FIFA world cup.

Qatar has a migrant workforce of 20 lakh. The findings in the report, compiled from government sources, show the country’s failure to protect its migrant workforce. The devastated families who have lost their breadwinners are still struggling to gain compensation.

What’s perplexing is that many are not even aware of the circumstances under which their family members died. The report has a case study from India -- the family of 43-year-old Madhu Bollapally is still looking for answers. They were told he died of natural causes. In 2019, one day when his roommate got back to the dorm, he saw Bollapally’s body on the floor. They are not sure how a healthy man could have died of heart failure due to natural causes while working in Qatar.

Bollapally is survived by his wife, Latha, and 13-year-old son Rajesh. “He had no health problems. There was nothing wrong with him,” Rajesh told Guardian. Though he worked for six years in Qatar before his death, his family received just Rs 1.14 lakh as compensation and unpaid salary.

Among the causes, “natural deaths” are most common, attributed to the heart or respiratory failure. Data obtained by Guardian reveals that 69 percent of deaths among Indian, Nepali and Bangladeshi workers are categorised as “natural”. Shockingly, the figure stands at 80 per cent for Indians alone. Other major causes of deaths among Indians, Nepalis and Bangladeshis are road accidents (12 per cent), workplace accidents (7 per cent) and suicide (7 per cent).

Since winning the rights to host the world cup, Qatar has embarked on an unprecedented building drive to prepare for the mega event in 2022. Even though death records are not categorised by occupation or place of work, it is likely that many of those who have lost their lives were employed on these world cup infrastructure projects, Nick McGeehan, a director at FairSquare Projects, an advocacy group specialising in labour rights in the Gulf, told Guardian.

Qatar World Cup: In 10 years, 2,711 migrant workers from India have died

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