KATHMANDU: The Ministry of Labour and Employment is all set to request the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to formally urge the Qatari government to look into the working conditions of Nepalis employed in the Gulf country as cases of deaths and labour abuses at project sites related to the 2022 World Cup, were exposed.

The move comes two days after The Guardian, a British newspaper, published a series of news reports stating that dozens of Nepali workers have died in Qatar and thousands more were ‘enduring appaling labour abuses’ as the country prepares to host the world’s most favourite sporting event, in 2022.

“We are planning to send an official letter to the foreign affairs ministry tomorrow asking it to request the Qatari government to effectively monitor working conditions of Nepalis in Qatar,” Labour Secretary Suresh Man Shrestha told THT.

Although the working condition of migrants in Qatar is said to be a lot better than in other Gulf countries, latest reports show that laws are being breached rampantly by contractors and sub-contractors that hire Nepali workers in the country.“We hope the official request made by the Nepali government will bring changes in contractors’ treatment towards Nepali workers,” Shrestha said.

The Guardian reported that Nepali workers died at a rate of almost one a day in Qatar, with the total number standing at 44 in between June 4 and August 8. “More than half died of heart attacks, heart failure or workplace accidents,” the newspaper said.

The Guardian investigation also revealed evidences of ‘forced labour’ on a huge World Cup infrastructure project, with quotes of some Nepalis saying they had not been paid for months and their salaries were withheld to stop them from running away. It also said some employers had ‘confiscated passports’ of workers and ‘refused to issue ID cards, in effect, reducing them to the status of illegal aliens’, while some Nepali workers were quoted as saying they were ‘denied access to free drinking water in the desert heat’.

Although the government has not launched a probe into these ‘abuses’, it said the practice of confiscating passports was preventing many Nepalis, who are being exploited, from reaching the embassy in Doha to report such cases.

However, the Nepali government refrained from openly criticising such abuses. Qatar is one of the biggest absorbers of Nepali migrant workers and significantly contributes to the country’s remittance income which stood at a whopping Rs 438.54 billion last fiscal.

Statistics of the Department of Foreign Employment show that 796,298 Nepalis have so far accepted job placements in Qatar. Last fiscal year alone, 90,935 Nepali workers had left for the country and another 14,968 Nepalis had accepted jobs in the country in the first two months of the current fiscal.

Published on: 29 September 2013 | The Himalayan Times